Audio Tape, Jack Badal--Some time in the 1980's; New
Britain, Connecticut, Supplied by relatives.

SECTION I - THE ASSYRIANS

Did you know that the Assyrians were the world's
super power in the seventh century BC? In the first article about
Ekron, a Philistine City, was once part of a far-flung Neo-Assyrian
Kingdom. The author notes the amazing military, political and economic
strength of the empire. Assyrian kings ruled from Nineveh, a city
situated on the Upper Tigris River in what is presently Northern Iraq.
The Assyrians, circa 650 B.C., controlled Egypt, Syria, Iraq, parts of
Turkey and Iran. Their influence extended west toward Carthage, Sicily
and Iberia, and as far East as Afghanistan and India. In 612 B.C.
Babylon conquered Nineveh, marking the end of the Assyrian empire.

BACKGROUND NOTES ON EARLY
ASSYRIA

FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES

JULY 23, 1996

ARTICLE TITLED: INSCRIPTION AT
PHILISTINE CITY SHOWS;

THIS IS THE RIGHT PLACE

AUTHOR; JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

Archeologists dream of turning over a temple stone
and finding an inscription saying this is the place you are looking
for. For a team of American and Israeli archeologists, the dream came
true early this month.

Since 1983, they have been excavating the ruins of an
ancient city at a site called Tel

Miqne, 20 miles southwest of Jerusalem. They had good
reason to think this was the Philistine City of Ekron, mentioned in the
Bible and Assyrian annals. The geography was right; where the coastal
plane of ancient Philistia met the hill country of Judah. All the
artifacts seemed recognizably Philistine.

On the assumption that this was Ekron, archeologists
and other scholars examining the decorated pottery and evidence for
advanced town planning concluded that contrary to the age-old slander,
Philistine culture was no oxymoron. They could also see that this must
have been one of the major industrial cities of the far-flung
Neo-Assyrian empire in the seventh century B.C. That gave them
important insights into how the Assyrians forged a new imperial
ideology based on mercantile principles, creating what some scholars
consider the first "world market."

But the archeologists could not be absolutely sure
that this was indeed Ekron until Dr. Seymour Gitin, director of the
Albright Institute of Archeological Research in Jerusalem, turned over
a large block of stone found near the entrance to a colonnaded building
at Tel Miqne. His expectations were low because nothing with writing
had been found there yet.

"I had been getting tired of this," Dr. Gitin said
last week in a telephone interview from the dig site. "Nothing ever
showed up."

When the caked dirt was cleared away, though, he let
out an unscholarly exclamation: "Oh, my God!" He saw a five-line
inscription written in Phoenician script, and some of the 69 letters
spelled out the name Ekron and the names of two of the city's known
kings, Achish and his father Padi. The inscription recorded that Achish
had built a temple here dedicated to a goddess.

"We always felt this was Ekron, but to find the
inscription makes the identification 100 percent," Dr. Gitin said,
"This you don't find very often in archeology."

In fact, he said, this is the first time the name of
a biblical city and a list of its kings has ever been found on a site
where its historical context is clear. No other such monumental
inscription has been found in Israel from the biblical period. Other
scholars agreed.

"It's a very exciting find," said Dr. Gary A.
Rendsburg, a professor of Near East studies at Cornell University.

For one thing, the inscription could give scholars
the first strong evidence of the language of the Philistines. They were
descendants of the enigmatic Sea Peoples, originally from the Aegean
Sea region, who arrived in large numbers on the coast of Canaan soon
after 1200 B.C. Canaan was a land that included much of present-day
Lebanon and Israel.

Whatever language these people first spoke, Greek or
something else, in time the Philistines apparently adopted a Canaanite
tongue, for the Bible portrays them as having no trouble communicating
with the Israelites. Phoenician and Hebrew were dialects of the
Canaanite language.

But scholars have never found any unambiguous example
of the writing of the Philistines, early or later.

A preliminary analysis of the inscription, Dr. Gitin
said, showed that not only was the script Phoenician, but probably the
language was as well. But it may have been a variation of Phoenician
used by the Philistines, with differences on the order of those between
British and American English.

A closer study of the inscription is being made by
Dr. Gitin and Dr. Trude Dothan, an archeologist at Hebrew University in
Jerusalem who is the other leader of the Tel

Miqne-Ekron project. They are being assisted by Dr.
Joseph Naveh, a Hebrew University epigrapher, who was one of the
scholars who originally suggested that the

ruins might be those of Ekron. The publication of the
entire inscription is planned for the fall.

Dr. Gitin said the inscription had already confirmed
the close link between Ekron and the Neo-Assyrian empire, which in the
late eighth century B.C. and most of the seventh century B.C. was the
super power of what was then considered the known world.

Ekron was one of many vassal city-states in the
empire and, as current excavations are revealing, must have been one of
the largest industrial centers of any kind in the ancient Middle east
in the seventh century B.C.

The name Achish in the text established the linkage
for archeologists. Achish was the name of a Philistine king mentioned
in the Bible in the books of 1 Samuel and 1 Kings during the time of
King David and King Solomon of Israel. But he is not the Achish
referred to in the inscription. Instead, the Achish in the text,
archeologists have determined, corresponds to the same Ikausu, who is
mentioned in Assyrian annals of the seventh century B.C. as the King of
Ekron.

Ikausu, scholars noted, was 1 of 12 kings of the
Mediterranean coast called upon by the Assyrian king in the first
quarter of the seventh century B.C. to provide building materials and
their transport for the construction of a palace at Nineveh.
Ashurbanipal, the successor, ordered the vassal kings of the Philistine
cities, including Ikausu of Ekron, to support his military campaigns
against Egypt.

The other name in the text - Padi, the father of
Achish or Ikausu - is referred to in Assyrian documents at the time the
empire's army conquered Ekron, which had been under the control of
neighboring Judah. The Assyrians restored Ekron's status as a
city-state, though now subservient to Nineveh, and reinstated Padi as
its king.

The inscription thus documents a critical period in
Ekron's history--its embrace by the Neo-Assyrian empire and the
expansion and apparent prosperity that followed.

The stone itself attests to the city's newfound
wealth, for it celebrated the construction of a new temple on the west
side of a stately palace, a building of Neo-Assyrian design and one of
the largest structures of its kind to be excavated in Israel. Other
digging in the past 13 years has shown that Ekron in the seventh
century B.C. grew rapidly from not much more than 10 acres to a city of
85 acres, complete with an elite quarter in the center of an industrial
zone containing more than 100 olive-oil processing plants.

These excavations are part of an ambitious study of
the Neo-Assyrian empire, especially its influence in the provinces and
vassal city-states. The project is directed by the Albright Institute
in Jerusalem, affiliated with the American School of Oriental Research,
and Hebrew University and also involves a consortium of 22 North
American and Israeli universities and research centers.

The discovery of the inscribed stone, Dr. Gitin said,
"is going to allow us to write with a great deal of assurance the
history of the Neo-Assyrian empire and its revolutionary economic
developments."

Through military might and political maneuvers, as
well as innovative economic practices, the kings in Nineveh, the
Assyrian capital on the upper Tigris River in what is now northern
Iraq, controlled territory as far south as Egypt and across present-day
Syria, Iraq and parts of Turkey and Iran. The empire's Phoenician
traders, operating out of the ports of Tyre and Sidon, extended a
Syrian influence as far west as Carthage, Sicily and Iberia. Other
economic links reached east into Afghanistan and perhaps India.

In their quest for raw materials and manufactured
goods, as well as new sources of silver for use as currency, the
Assyrian kings created a new supranational system of political and
economic

power, leading to 70 years of widespread growth of
urban centers, transforming cottage industries into mass production and
encouraging specialization in manufacturing. The heartland of the
empire was extensively explored in the 19th century by European and
American archeologists who uncovered city ruins and royal documents. At
the site of Ekron and in other research, scholars are concentrating on
the view of the empire from the periphery, and Dr. Gitin is convinced
that this is yielding a telling picture of the empire's dynamics.

In a report on his interpretation of Ekron's imperial
role, published last year by the Archeological Institute of America,
Dr. Gitin wrote that the Philistine city "was apparently chosen as a
focus of Assyrian economic activity because of its geographic and
topographic advantages, with its proximity to sources of raw materials,
land routes and Mediterranean harbors." In addition, the city had
escaped serious damage in the Assyrian conquest and was a politically
stable environment.

Archeologists were particularly impressed by the
extent of Ekron's olive-oil industry. In detailed excavations of only 3
percent of the city's area, they uncovered 105 olive-oil installations,
containing stone presses, ceramic storage vessels and other artifacts.

When two such factories were reconstructed,
researchers tested their output and determined that Ekron's estimated
overall annual production of olive oil could have reached 1,000 tons,
or 290,000 gallons. This is the equivalent of 20 percent of Israel's
current level of export olive-oil production.

Before this time, archeologists said, there is no
evidence of olive-oil production in Ekron and very little elsewhere in
the region, most of it for local consumption.

"This is a prime example of the innovative policy of
industrial specialization and mass production which concentrated
large-scale industrial activity in one center," Dr. Gitin said.

Other artifacts at Ekron pointed to a significant
textile industry and to extensive foreign contacts, presumably through
trade. Among the ruins are goblets and bottles from Assyria, ceramics
from Greece and Carthage, and Israelite and Phoenician religious
objects. And there are hoards of silver in small ingots and jewelry.

Another of the Neo-Assyrian innovations, it seems was
the wide-spread use of silver as a currency to supplement and, in some
cases, replace conventional modes of payment by goods and services. In
Spain, new silver mines were opened to meet the increased currency
demands.

At the Ekron site, archeologists came upon four large
collections of silver, some hidden in cooking jugs buried beneath the
floors and others found in a hole in a large stone -- perhaps and early
form of a wall safe.

Dr. Michael Notis, a metallurgist at Lehigh
University, is analyzing the silver to determine its origin.

Other scholars praise the comprehensive excavations
at Ekron and have generally endorsed Dr. Gitin's assessment of the
innovative dynamics of the Neo-Assyrian empire, but they cautioned
against possibly exaggerating the role of Ekron in the empire, just
because the research is new and in some cases surprising. Other cities,
like Tyre and Sidon, were probably more important to the empire, they
pointed out.

Ekron's time of prosperity was fleeting, as was the
Neo-Assyrian empire's. In the late seventh century B.C., first Egypt
and then Babylon broke away from the empire, Babylonian forces
conquered Nineveh in 612. Ekron itself fell to the Babylonians of
Nebuchadnezzar in 603, and the entire city and its grand palace with
Achish's designatory stone became ruins.

Then the Philistines largely disappeared from
history. The Neo-Assyrian empire, which scholars consider the first of
the classical empires, was followed by the Babylonians,

Persians, Greeks and Roman.

THE CLAIMS OF THE ASSYRIANS BEFORE THE CONFERENCE OF
THE PRELIMINARIES OF PEACE AT PARIS, 1919

1. THE ASSYRIAN PEOPLE

The Assyrians are better known by their three
Ecclesiastical designations representing the three main religious
bodies of the people. Of these three main divisions.

(A) The Nestorians have predominated in the
Kkur-distant mountains, inhabiting Barvar, Tayari, Tkhooma, Baz, Jeloo,
Gavar etc. with Koodchanis as their patriarchal See.

(B) The Chaldeans predominate in the province of
Mosul, abounding also in the various locations in lower Mesopotamia
down to the Persian gulf, with Mosul as their patriarchal See.

(C) The Jacobites prevail in the province of
Dearbeker, abounding also in Syria proper, and in other localities in
the former empire of Turkey, with the city of Mardin as their
patriarchal See.

A careful examination of the various statistics
compiled by the European experts as to the Assyrian population shows,
that the resources from which they were compiled to draw were entirely
erroneous and misleading. This error in all probability is largely due
to the fact, that a very large number of the Assyrians lost their
mother tongue and speak Turkish, Arabic and Armenian, and the Armenian
speaking Assyrians became identified with the Armenian people and were
counted as the Armenians. Thus during the so called Armenian massacre
and exile, fully 175,000 Assyrians perished, and were listed under the
Armenian atrocities.

Exclusive of the three main Assyrian divisions
mentioned above, there are also;--

(D) The Assyrian Maronite element. The Maronite
Assyrians became identified with their Syrian co-religionist and are
erroneously named to the present day as the Syrians.

(E) The Persian Assyrian. Before the war broke out,
the city and district of Urmia alone claimed 82,000 Assyrians who
occupied 112 villages. The small district of Salmas claimed 10,000
Assyrians. Settled in the various cities and localities on the western
boundary of Persia, immediately adjoining Turkey, there have lived
about 150,000 Assyrians.

(F) The Assyrians in Russia. Driven by the mohammedan
oppression, large numbers of the Assyrians had left both Persia and
Turkey to settle in the various parts of south Russia. Some 30,000 to
40,000 of these sojourn now in the district of Iravan, Caucasia. A
similar number is at the present time in the city of Tiflis and its
environs, in Caucasia. Other Assyrians formed temporary settlements in
the various towns situated on the Black Sea. During the first Russian
withdrawal from Azarbaijan, about 40,000 Persian Assyrian refugees
managed to escape to Russia, and have remained there since. All told
there are not less than 100,000 Assyrians in Russia, and 95 percent of
these are ready to return to an autonomous state, freed from former
oppression, and protected by some mandatory power.

The most conservative figures will place the Assyrian
population at not less than 600,000 (not including India and Egypt
Assyrians). And while there three main Assyrian bodies are separated
from each other by certain areas occupied by the non-Assyrian elements,
they nevertheless are living in a proximity sufficiently close to form
a separate state protected by some mandatory power.

(G) The Islamic Assyrians. Like unto the ruins which
tell the story of a past catastrophe, the moslemized Assyrians
constitute a living history of the persecutions to which the Assyrian
people for centuries have been subjected. Within the areas still
occupied by the Assyrians, or in the immediate vicinity of all such
areas, there are Moslems which are distinctly of the Assyrian origin.
Perhaps one or two examples should suffice, not only to reveal this
fact, but also to show the justification of both the Assyrian claims
and the Assyrian aspirations.

In a portion of the Kurdistan mountains, immediately
west of the Persian boundary, there has lived a Kurdish tribe of
considerable size, known by the name of "Shakkak" who themselves admit
their Assyrian nationality, and to the present day they address the
Nestorian patriarch in the most reverent manner, calling him by an
endearing designation of "Uncle."

In the district of Sapna, immediately above the
district of Barvar, in upper Mesopotamia, there are bodies of Kurds,
still retaining sufficient characteristics to prove their Assyrian
origin.

The Yezidies of the Shangar mountains, numbering now
more than 300,000 souls, are of the Assyrian blood, and their departure
from the Christian fold is of a comparatively recent date.

It is not necessary to make mention of similar bodies
in other localities; but the leaders of the Assyrian people have always
looked for the day of the opportunity, to reclaim their lost nationals
back into the Christian faith, and also into the national fold. And
indeed with this end in view the Assyrian National Associations have
been organized, not only in the United States and Canada, but also
elsewhere. Funds have been collected, and national treasuries have been
created with sufficient resources to establish national schools, not
only for the Assyrian people, but also for those of their brethren in
flesh and blood who are now lost to them in the fold of Islam. And
surely, history shows, that the Assyrians, when given an opportunity,
are capable of the achievement.

II. The Assyrians and the War

After the entry of the Russian forces into Persia,
and immediately before the declaration of war by Turkey, the Turkish
government sent official emissaries to Mar Shimon, the patriarch of the
Nestorian branch of the Assyrian people, and offered the late patriarch
large sums of money in gold, on the condition that the patriarch and
his people should remain neutral. Of the three Assyrian patriarchs, Mar
Shimon alone was in a position to strike against the Turks with the
Assyrian independent tribes of Tyari, Tkhooma, Baz and Jeloo. In the
meantime, Mar Shimon's brother who was studying in Constantinople, was
kept as a hostage by the Turkish government, and threatened with a
horrible death, in case Mar Shimon refused the Turkish offer and went
over to the side of the allies. This intelligence was officially
communicated to the head and the leader of the Nestorians. The
patriarch, however sent envoys to the Russian military authorities in
Urmia, Persia, by whom he had previously been approached, and from whom
he had received a promise of 25,000 guns, and informed the latter, that
he had decided to declare war against Turkey.

In addition to the Turkish offer, the German consul
in Mosul, sent agents to Mar Shimon, guaranteeing the absolute security
of all the Assyrians in the Turkish empire on the condition of the
patriarch's neutrality. Even this German offer was refused, and the
hostilities commenced between the Turks and the Nestorian Assyrians.

Thus from the time of Turkey's entry into the war,
the Assyrians have fought incessantly as a distinct unit in the group
of the Allied nations. The victories credited to the Russian forces in
Kurdistan were in reality won by the Assyrian forces in that front of
battle. The Kurds, who were a perpetual menace to the Russian
operations, were absolutely cleared from those valleys by the army of
Mar Shimon. And had the Russians fulfilled their promise of supplying
the patriarch's forces with rifles and a few cannon, the capture of
Mosul by the Assyrians would have been an easy possibility.

However, surrounded on all sides by vastly superior
numbers, short of guns and ammunition, face to face with total
extermination because of their siding with the Allies, sacrificing
thousands on the field of battle, and losing tens of thousands through
actual starvation and disease, the Assyrians never faltered. Through
all the vicissitudes and the turning tides of the war, and even after
the collapse of Russia, the Nestorian Assyrians remained loyal to their
Allies, and endured all for the sake of the freedom for all the
Assyrians.

The independence which they now seek, they do not ask
as a charity, they demand it by appealing to the sense of justice and
equity. They have fought for it; they have purchased it with the
streams of their own blood shed on the field of battle. In Kurdistan,
in Turkey, in Persia, in Russia, in Poland and in France, lay the
graves of the Assyrians, which stand not only as splendid monuments to
their valor, but also as a tremendous price paid for the restoration of
their lands, and for the independence of their people. Even the late
patriarch himself laid down his life upon the altar of his people's
freedom.

A nation that has lost nearly one third of its
numerical strength because of the part it played in the world war, must
surely be entitled to recognition and independence, especially in the
presence of those political declarations which have repeatedly
proclaimed the inauguration of a new era wherein the principle of self
determination was to be recognized as a sacred and inherent right of
mankind.

III. The Territorial Claims of the Assyrians

The original land of the Assyrians embraced an area
of 250,000 square miles. Islamic power seized the land, and planted
Islamic elements in the newly confiscated territory. The name, however,
with whatever dialect pronounced, stands as an eternal deed, showing
that the house belongs to the Assyrians. And no tribunal of justice can
overlook this fact. The Assyrians, however, do not pretend to claim all
this original territory. But they do claim that portion of upper
Mesopotamia, where they abound in large numbers. This portion of the
land embraces naturally an area which stretches from below the lower
Zaba, up to, and including the province of Dearbaker, where the
Assyrians vastly outnumber the Armenians; and also from Euphrates in
the west, to the mountains of Armenia in the east. Added to this, the
Assyrians naturally desire an access to the sea.

The Assyrians realize, that in all probability, the
Kurdish elements which reside in the area claimed by them, may present
a sort of problem that will command attention. Against such a possible
observation we feel that we must present the following memorandum:

1. Morally there cannot be a discrimination between
the Kurds and the Turks. The Kurd proved himself just as an efficient a
tool for the aspirations of an imperial Germany, as did the Turk, while
the former vastly exceeded the latter in ferocity and brutality against
all the Christians, and particularly against the Assyrians. The crime
of one is the guilt of the other.

2. To place an enemy element, which happens to be
dwelling in the area claimed by the Assyrians, on the same level with a
people that has suffered, and suffered gladly and so heavily in the
Allied cause, would be, to place the criminal on the same level with
the innocent, and it would mean lasting injustice to the Assyrians.

3. While it is perhaps just, that even the Kurds, as
a race, are entitled to the benefits of the principle of self
determination if they so desire; but to permit their claim to expand
and infringe upon the exclusive right of the Assyrians, is to place a
premium on plunder, murder and massacre.

4. So long as there exist religious bigotry and
religious fanaticism and the word "Gavoor" (heathen) is not eliminated
from the vocabulary of the Turk or of the Kurd, this Islamic element
can never be trusted by the Assyrians. The wild beast is now caged by
defeat and not tamed by culture. In order to free the Assyrians from
the repetition of the former barbarities to which they have been
subjected for centuries by the combined hatred of the Turk and the
Kurd, and in order to save their position from being exposed to the
previous perils, the reasonable area thus claimed by them, even though
including some Kurds within its bounds, must be created into an
Assyrian state, under the protectorate of some mandatory power.

5. It would be decidedly to the moral, educational
and spiritual advantage of those Kurds who will thus remain in a newly
created Christian state, to receive the benefits of those educational
and industrial enterprises which the Assyrians themselves have
undertaken to establish.

6. It will be decidedly in the interest of peace, at
least in that portion of Asia as well as to the advantage of the power
holding the mandatory authority in the land, and also to the moral and
spiritual advantages of all the non-Christian and heterogeneous
elements of the entire Mesopotamia, to grant to the Assyrians the new
state they desire and embracing the area they claim.

Has the agony of the war given birth to the rights of
mankind? If so, the awful sacrifices made, meet their equal
compensation. Anything short of the righteous and reasonable claim of a
people, no matter how weak or how small, is bound to bring another day
of retribution. Heaven with sorrow witnessed the tragedy of the war; it
now hearkens with yearning to the cry of the small nations, and looks
with longing for the enactment of justice to the oppressed people.
Therefore, immeasurably greater than the crises of the war, are those
which now hang upon the treatment accorded to the weak and the
deserving.

IV. The Claims of the Assyrians for Reparation

A ruthless slaughter of innocent women and children
cannot be condoned. A deliberate crusade, to exterminate one whole
nation, cannot be concealed under the cover of an unconditional
surrender. If Turkey failed to exterminate the remainder of the
Assyrians, and confiscate their property, she did so, because she
failed in her war. She perhaps can never pay for all the material and
other losses suffered by the Assyrians under her most oppressive rule
for centuries; but for the losses inflicted upon the Assyrians during
the war, both Turkey and Germany should be compelled to make
reparation. Fully 200,000 Assyrians of the Kurdistan valleys and plains
are absolutely deprived of everything they owned, and their homes are
left in ruins. In order that they may be able to rehabilitate
themselves, they should be compensated for their entire material
losses. And likewise, we believe ourselves entitled to reparation for
all the Assyrians who resided in the interior of Turkey.

The Assyrians in the district of Dearbeker, including
Orpha, Harpoot, Mardin and Midiat have passed through a literal deluge
of blood. The Assyrian population was put to the edge of the sword by
the regular troops of Turkey. The villages including those in the
district of Bohtan were totally destroyed. Altogether, more than
486,000 men women and children were massacred, 84 Jacobite churches and
44 monasteries were razed to the ground, and 186 Assyrian priests were
killed in the most barbarous manner.

The brave Assyrian city of Midiat stood the onslaught
of the Turkish troops for a period of six months. The city at last had
to surrender on account of the lack of ammunition, and the Turks
besides killing the Assyrian defenders, bayoneted every woman and child
within the walls. The Assyrian city of Midiat is a heap of ruins now.

V. The Claims of the Persian Assyrians

The Assyrian atrocities in Azarbaijan have equaled,
if not surpassed, those inflicted upon their brethren in Turkey. While
the Russians were still in Urmia, the local mohammedans had caught the
echo of Turkey's proclamation of the "holy war" and they were then
seeking an opportunity to pour out their vengeance upon the defenseless
Assyrian Christians. This opportunity presented itself, when
immediately after the first withdrawal of the Russian forces from
Urmia, the entire mohammedan population arose, lifting up the banner of
the "jehad" and determined to exterminate the entire Christian
population of Urmia, Sooldooz, Margavar and Targavar. The Assyrians of
the last three named districts had already escaped into Urmia from fear
of the approaching Turkish forces. The Assyrians, from all directions
naturally endeavored to reach the city of Urmia, where they might seek
the protection of the American and the French flags, which were flying
over the buildings of the two respective missions. The Assyrians,
however, who had left all their possessions behind, were intercepted by
their armed mohammedan neighbours, and killed in the most brutal
manner. Old men and women, who were unable to undertake the journey,
were either thrown alive into the wells and covered with dirt, or else
burned alive in their homes which were set on fire. Little girls, 6 and
8 years of age, were assaulted on open Bibles, and on the pulpits of
the Christian churches. The leading Assyrians were grouped together,
placed in rows, and then either shot by rifles, or beheaded by the
sword. The murderers, in a number of instances, actually licked the
blood off their swords and daggers, to appease their hatred and satisfy
their thirst for the blood of the Christians. About 30,000 to 40,000
managed in a most miraculous way to reach the city, where they found
the American and the French mission buildings open to receive them.
Here they were obliged to remain for several months in a state of
siege, and thousands of them perished from contagion and disease.

After the return of the Russian forces into Urmia,
the Siberian regiments, as they beheld the atrocious deeds perpetrated
upon the Assyrians, they actually shook with emotion and prepared to
bombard the city and avenge the blood of the innocent people. It was
again the Christians who interceded with the Russian officers and
persuaded them not to return evil for evil.

After the collapse of Russia, the mohammedan
population of Urmia, unmindful of the forgiving spirit shown them
previously by the Assyrians, and of the desire of the latter for peace
and harmony in spite of their losses, rose up once more, this time
assisted by the Persian Kurds and the mohammedans of Salmas.
Fortunately, some of the mountain Assyrians, under the leadership of
the late Nestorian patriarch, were now in Urmia. The Nestorian
patriarch at this time sent two letters, one to the governor of Urmia
and the other to the governor general of Azarbaijan at Tabriz,
informing them that the Assyrians had absolutely no evil designs, that
they were friendly to the Persian government; and begged the governors
to prevent the mohanmmedan uprisings, and also to allow the Assyrians
to remain temporarily in Urmia, till God in His mercy showed them a way
of escape, either to Caucasia or to Baghdad. Instead of heeding this
request, the two governors mentioned had themselves planned the
uprising as it became evident later, and were determined on the
extermination of the Christian population. The subsequent assassination
of the late Mar Shimon, was also a plot which was originally laid in
the city of Tabriz. We have the most conclusive proofs to show that the
responsibility for the Assyrian massacres and losses in Persia, rests
absolutely upon the Azarbaijan authorities of Persia. Fully 112
Assyrian villages were burned to the ground or otherwise destroyed. The
homes of all the Assyrians in Urmia were plundered, and the household
effects, together with the cattle of the Assyrians can be found in the
possession of Urmia mohammedans. The proofs of this responsibility have
already been submitted by the leaders of the Assyrian people to the
legations of the allied nations in Teheran. Fully 50,000 Persian and
mountain Assyrians perished because of these fanatical uprisings, and
about 4,000 Assyrian women are now kept in bondage in the homes of the
moslems. And during their last exodus from Urmia, on their way to
Baghdad, the Assyrians were pursued and shot down by a
Majid-el-Saltana, a general in the Persian army.

For the shedding of innocent blood, and for the
material losses they have suffered, the Assyrians present their claim
for indemnity against the Azarbaijan government of Persia.

If we were to figure at the shocking rate of 250
Toomans which was the standard price allowed by the courts of Urmia for
the killing of a Christian by a mohammedan, the Azarbaijan government
should be held responsible to the extent of 12,500,000 Toomans as an
indemnity for the deliberate plan to exterminate all the Assyrians, and
for the actual loss of 50,000 men, women and children.

Indemnity for the Assassination of the Nestorian
Patriarch

The assassination of the late patriarch Mar Shimon
was a most cowardly deed perpetrated by the instigation and conspiracy
of the two Persian governors to whom we have alluded. The governor
General of Azarbaijan, showing apparently compliance with the request
of the Assyrian patriarch as contained in his official letter, sent
messengers to the latter, asking him to meet the Persian envoys in
Salmas, to which place the said envoys were coming from Tabriz. Mar
Shimon accompanied by 200 of his men and intensely desirous of harmony,
left for Salmas. Here in the city of Deliman he met the Persian envoys,
entirely ignorant of the fact that their apparent friendship was a mere
mask for murder. Most cordial greetings were exchanged and the
negotiating parties apparently came to a mutual understanding. At the
conclusion of the interview, the patriarch prepared to depart for
Urmia. The Persian envoys, however, suggested that he should also meet
a Simkoo, a Kurdish brigand and chieftain of a notorious Kurdish tribe,
who was also residing then in Salmas. The patriarch replied that Simkoo
did not represent the Persian Authorities and he was not even a law
abiding Persian subject, and therefore, he could have no dealing with
him. The Persian envoys, however, appealing to the patriarch's desire
for peace and tranquillity, and under the pretense of wishing to calm
the disturbances in the entire district, insisted that Mar Shimon
should visit the notorious Kurdish chieftain. In a spirit of meekness
and humility and with a desire to please the Tabriz authorities, the
patriarch consented to do so. In the meanwhile, Simkoo, with the full
knowledge and deliberate planning of the Tabriz envoys, had his sharp
shooters placed in advantageous points on the roofs of the houses
adjoining his residence. So when the interview with the Kurdish brigand
was over, and as the patriarch emerged from the house into the court
yard where his men were waiting for him, he was received with a rain of
bullets, and only six of his wounded attendants managed to escape to
tell the story of conspiracy and murder.

Justice demands that the Azarbaijan government should
pay an indemnity of one million Toomans for this cowardly betrayal of
trust, and for this deliberate plan of assassination and murder.

For the material losses of the Assyrians in Urmia,
Salmas, Sooldooz, Targavar and Margavar, the Assyrians demand an
additional and a most reasonable indemnity of 18,000,000 Toomans,
making a total of 31,500,000 Toomans, which they justly claim from the
Azarbaijan government of Persia.

The Assyrians desire further to make known the
following facts;--

1. The districts of Targavar and Margavar,
immediately west of the district of Urmia, are almost exclusively
inhabited by the Assyrians, while their very names are indicative of
Assyrian origin.

2. In the district of Urmia about 112 villages are
almost exclusively inhabited by the Assyrians.

3. In the small district of Salmas nearly 30
villages, are inhabited by the Assyrians and the Armenians mixed.

4. In Somoi and Bradost, immediately north of the
district of Targavar, both the Assyrians and the Armenians abound,
while part of the Kurdish element in the valley, even though mohammedan
by religion, is of Assyrian blood and origin.

5. The remainder of the population both in Urmia and
in Salmas districts, is not of Persian blood but of Turkish or Afshar
origin.

6. Because of the ill and bitter feeling created,
first by the pre-war oppression of the Assyrians and then intensified
by the fearful outrages perpetrated against them during the war, the
interests of peace and harmony can perhaps be best served by an
exchange of those districts for some other place which falls within the
zone claimed by the Assyrians, and which could be more desirable, and
of decidedly greater advantage to Persia.

The Assyrian delegates would be willing to debate
their claim with the Persian delegates, or to enter into negotiation
with them for a satisfactory solution of the problem.

VI. The Capabilities of the Assyrians

The prospect of a people can best seen in the light
of its retrospect. Entirely indifferent to the imperial grandeur of the
by-gone ages, we simply make mention of those capabilities which are
essential for the promotion of civilization and which in their free
operation, they contribute to the uplift of mankind at large. The
successive ages of oppression, and an existence of actual bondage,
accompanied with perpetual fear, to be sure, closed the passage of
progress to the Assyrian people, and they inevitably ushered in a long
period of deterioration and comparative illiteracy, of which we are
most sensitively conscious; and yet in the midst of Islam's perpetual
fire, the ratio of such illiteracy among the Assyrians, has always been
kept many degrees lower than among their ruling masters. History shows
that either during the regime of the Persian or of the Tartars or of
the Challifs or of the Turks, the Assyrians became the eyes and the
brains of the powers that ruled over them. Even at the present time the
sons of Assyrian hold most responsible positions in the various
departments of the governments of which they are subjects.

The memories of Orpha, and of Nisibin, and of
Ctisphon, and of Babylon, have always lingered in the mind of every
succeeding generation; while in this day of new opportunity, those
memories have already given to the people a fresh inspiration and a
united determination, to rebuild the ruined structures of their old
institutions, and to resume the initiative they once had in
enlightening the peoples and the races with whom they are destined to
come in contact. The Assyrians are still the same people of whose
heroism and achievements when Gibbon writes, he does so with a the
trembling pen, and with an admiration that becomes an inspiration even
to a skeptical historian Thus providentially endowed with spiritual
gifts and attainments, and as the faithful custodians of the earliest
Christianity, the Assyrian people are destined to play once more the
old apostolic role and become a blessing even to their former enemies.

Educational Preparation. Unconscious of the events,
the impending aspect of which was surely concealed from the knowledge
of man, guided nevertheless by a gracious providence, the Assyrians as
if in the possession of a prophetic vision, have for the last 25 or 30
years, taken advantage of the opportunities presented to them by the
educational institutions of both America and Europe, and have developed
talents for an Assyrian National University which has long been in
contemplation. The spirit of the great Assyrian educators is still
alive, and the Assyrians throughout the world are prepared to establish
their own national schools, the doors of which will be thrown open to
every tribe and race that may be found living in their midst.

The Industrial Possibilities. In the line of industry
even though crushed by injustice and robbed by tyranny, the Assyrians
have always excelled their persecuting enemies.

The greatest part of the new Russian Caucasian
Railway, which runs from Tiflis to the Persian frontier, was built by
the Assyrian engineers and Assyrian skill.

Wherever and whenever they have found themselves in
the possession of equal rights, the Assyrians have become contractors
of renown, as in Russia and in America. The foundation of a new and
most prosperous city in the United States was laid by Assyrian hands,
and Assyrian contractors.

Agriculture has always been a specialty of the
Assyrian people. But they have specialized in the new development of
scientific agriculture; and a movement is already in motion to
introduce modern tools and modern methods for the awakening of the
fertile soil of Assyria from its long lingering slumber.

Manufacture. Whether it be silk or cotton or wool,
the Assyrian mechanics and weavers are prepared to plant and to run
Assyrian factories.

The Assyrians may need foreign capital but they
certainly do not need foreign skill for the development of mineral
resources.

Commerce. In the line of commerce, the Assyrians made
such strides as to arouse the jealousy of their enemies both in Turkey
and in Persia. In the centers where the Assyrians are found, both
import and export business has gradually been passing into their hands.
Undoubtedly this, their success, has indirectly been responsible for a
hatred that has now poured the vengeance of their persecutors upon them

Such are the capabilities of a people who ask for
justice and in the name and in the interests of justice they ask to be
created into a state under a mandatory power. In the choosing of such a
power, the wishes of the Assyrians in America are naturally for the
United States while those of the patriarch Mar Shimon are for Great
Britain. The question of the mandatory power, however, we voluntarily
submit to the judgment and the discretion of the supreme council.

CONCLUSION

1. The Assyrians as a historic people both in
the interests of history and for the perpetuation of that history,
should be created into a separate state.

2. Their achievement in the past, and their large
contribution for the uplift of mankind, both in the educational
endeavor and in the spreading of those pacifying influences which are
the real backbone of civilization, entitle the Assyrians to a
recognition of their claim.

3. A nation that has persisted through centuries of
persecution in the declaration of her faith, and has sacrificed vast
numbers of martyrs upon the altar of that faith, finds her greatest
right to a recognition of her claim in her consciousness of moral and
spiritual responsibilities, and also in the knowledge of her capability
to resume the discharge of those humanitarian and self sacrificing
obligations.

4. After the manner of the figure beheld by Moses,
the fire of the Assyrian affliction has been terrific; but they have
not been consumed. The historic nation has still a remnant left,
sufficiently large to be created into a separate state.

5. As a belligerent people who have risked more and
sacrificed proportionately more, fighting on the side of the Allies,
they are entitled to a realization of their claim for a separate state.

6. As a belligerent people who entered into the war
on the side of the Allies, in spite of the alluring inducements offered
them by the Turkish government, the claims of the Assyrians for
indemnities and reparation are entitled to the very first
consideration. The very plight of their refugees calls for immediate
attention.

7. We have the most conclusive proofs to show that
the Assyrians were urged by the official representatives of Great
Britain, France and Russia, to enter into the war on the side of the
Allies, and were induced into a state of belligerency with the most
solemn promises of being given a free state. The Assyrians, therefore,
having risked the very existence of their nation, and having made such
appalling sacrifices upon the altar of freedom, demand that these
promises of the allied governments should now be honorably redeemed.

8. The outrages perpetrated upon the Persian
Assyrians should be indemnified, and all their material losses should
receive full compensation from the authorities directly responsible for
the Assyrians' loss of life and property.

9. In the interest of future peace and tranquillity,
some plan should be devised whereby Salmas and Urmia including Targavar
and Margavar where the Assyrians abound, could be exchanged for some
other place that would be perfectly satisfactory to the Persian
government.

10. The Assyrians demand a state bounded roughly by
Tikrit (below Zaba) in the south, and the province of Dearbeker in the
north; and by a straight line running parallel with the banks of
Euphrates in the west, to the mountains of Armenia in the east.

11. The Assyrians realize that at least for 25 years
hence, they will be incapable of self government and therefore they
desire the supervision of a mandatorial power.

(These claims are in perfect accord with the wishes
of Mar Shimon and men of war and the leaders of the Assyrian nation as
expressed through the cables transmitted through the Department of
State in Washington to the President of the Assyrian National
Association of America.)

THE MIDDLE EAST IN THE POST-WAR WORLD

NATIONAL AND RELIGIOUS MINORITIES
AT NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF EDUCATION

JUNE 6, 1947

THE ASSYRIANS BY DR. DAVID B. PERLEY

It is difficult in these difficult days, to be
an Assyrian. Sometimes people seem to know nothing about him, although
he is a very aged gentlemen who has seen nearly ten thousand years roll
over his head, and still he presses on. However, in all frankness, one
must acknowledge the admission of the Editor of the NEAR EAST AND
INDIA, who has crusaded against the Assyrian cause for years as
the instrument of the Colonial Office, that "there is no finer human
material in the whole of the Middle East than the Assyrians".

Be that as it may, no cause is so symbolic of the
state of national and religious minorities in the Middle East as that
of the Assyrian. That cause will show how solemn promises have been
cynically broken and will illustrate why British prestige in close to
its nadir at this moment by reason of the pursuit of her game of Power
Politics despite the fact that she has just emerged victorious from a
great political convulsion; at the same time, it may serve as a pointer
or a warning to our country that has just come into the scene of the
Middle East.

ORIGIN OF THE ASSYRIANS

The present Assyrians are the descendants of the
ancient Assyrian Empire, the oldest heart from which emanated the fire
of civilization. They are Christians, who claim an unbroken spiritual
descent from the early Apostolic Church. Speaking Aramaic, in which the
Gospel was originally written, they were the first, as a people to
adhere to the new Faith and the first to convey it to non-Aramaic
speaking peoples. Thus it was that in the early Christian centuries,
they were famous missionaries who evangelized the entire East as far
away as China, Burma, and India as testified to by the Nestorian
Monument in China and by the Nestorian Tablet in Madras.

Prior to 1914, they lived as hardy Highland clansmen
in the Mountains of Hakkiari, Kurdistan, in the north of what is now
Iraq and in the southeast of Turkey but within the Turkish Empire. Here
they led an autonomous existence from time immemorial as a millet or
nation under the supreme rule of their Prince-Patriarch, the Mar
Shimun, who was recognized as both the temporal and spiritual head of
his Christian Millet by the Persian Emperors, by the Arab Khalifs, by
the Mogul Khans, and by the Ottoman Sultans.

IN WORLD WAR I

When World War I broke out, the Assyrians joined the
Allies after the Patriarch had been urged to declare war upon the Turks
from the heart of the Turkish Empire by the Eastern Committee of the
British War Cabinet by reason of the magnificent fighting qualities of
the Assyrians as well as the extremely important strategical position
of their homeland in the neighborhood of Turkish, Persian, and Russian
frontier. Mr. J. S. Ward, stated in the London Daily Telegram of
November 10, 1933:

It was we who invited them to rise against the
Turks,

and promised them their independence if they would

do so.

Believing in the promises, the Assyrians poured every
man into the ranks of the new armies. The British Government has
generously recognized the great contribution made by the Assyrians to
the Allied cause, but the plan ended in disaster for the Assyrians;
for, by the end of 1915, they were totally driven out of their hills
and forced to flee into Persia. And by the time they made contact with
the British troops in Mesopotamia, they had lost two-thirds of their
numbers. As soon as the war was ended, all the promises to the
Assyrians were forgotten, and to the utter amazement of all the
non-Arab population in the Middle East, a new Arab state was erected in
Mesopotamia under the name of Iraq. The Assyrians were then left in
refugee camps in the land and told that the problem of their settlement
must await the making of peace with Turkey. That peace took four long
year, and when it was finally made, the question of Hakkiari (the
former home of the Assyrians) was left open and referred to the League.
The League sent out a Commission to study the problem, and accepting
the report of that Commission, it gave Hakkiari to Turkey, but made
Turkey surrender important territory north of Mosul with the
understanding that it was to be an autonomous home for the Assyrians
with all their ancient rights under their Patriarch subject to a
mandate to Great Britain to administer the whole for a period of 25
years dating from 1923.

THE MOSUL CONTROVERSY

The Mosul Controversy presents an excellent
example of the sordid game of Power Politics in the Middle East.
Kemalist Turkey argued before the League that geographically Mosul was
an indivisible part of Turkey. Britain alleged, on the other hand, that
it belonged to Iraq and fortified its claim by the moral force of the
plausible argument that there are Assyrians who as Christians need
protection from the Turks, as if Oil Politics could be satisfied with a
partial violation of the moral and humanistic sentiments! At any rate
it helped the greatest Christian Empire to be victorious in her
struggle for oil.

An exceedingly curious situation arose on May 21,
1924 at the Conference of Constantinople which dealt with the
preliminaries of the contest over the Vilayet of Mosul. It was the
contention of Fethi Bey of Turkey that no cession of land to the
Assyrian Territory was a necessity as the Assyrians could still find in
Turkey the tranquillity and prosperity which they enjoyed for
centuries. To this, Sir Percy Cox replied that Fethi Bey's assertion
did not square with the Assyrians' own views and that they had the most
vivid memory of the treatment they had suffered in the past at the
hands of the Turks, which they could neither forget nor ever forgive -
as if Sir Percy was authorized to speak for the Assyrians and as if
these "refugees" had an invincible army and navy.

Now all these may sound very unimportant in these
tremendously important days. The fate of a little people is of small
moment in view of the greater injustices which have been done to people
everywhere. But curiously enough, the treatment of the Assyrians has
done more to undermine people's trust in British promises and justice
(and that of the entire West for that matter) than any other single
incident since 1914. The Assyrians stand out, and are constantly
quoted, as perfect examples of British diplomacy and commercial greed
by most of the leaders and agitators in the Middle East. Who has not
heard Arab, Kurd, Lebanese, Hebrew, and Druze leaders murmur in bitter
sarcasm whenever British good-faith is in question, the words:
"Remember the Assyrians? Remember the Assyrians is both a watchword and
a reproach. The Arab world believes that Britain is concerned only with
commercial greed and that all illusion of the selflessness of the West
has long since departed in the face of the proof of usury and
double-dealing that the West has given so often, and in no case more
callously than in that of the Assyrians.

THE ASSYRIAN LEVIES

In 1920 there was insurrection in Iraq. Britain again
organized the Assyrians into what is known as the Assyrian Levies to
police the troublesome, turbulent Moslems. But this very task was bound
to foment bitter hatred against the unfortunate Assyrians.
Nevertheless, the Assyrians, firmly believing that the power of Britain
would never desert them, proved loyal soldiers of Britain. In the words
of Lt.-Col. Sir Arnold Wilson, the then Civil Commissioner:

They saved the British Army from utter disaster
in 1920

and that:

It was the Assyrian Force that saved the swamping

of the British rule in the Arab revolt of 1920

THE TERMINATION OF THE MANDATE

After negotiating (in 1930) the Anglo-Iraq Treaty of
Alliance and the Finance Agreement which placed the main oil fields and
railways in the control of the British, Britain decided to terminate
the Mandate without provision or qualification. The Permanent Mandates
Commission was very apprehensive about the future of the racial and
religious minorities in Iraq, but Britain urged the unconditional entry
of Iraq in the League upon the following undertaking:

His Majesty's Government realizes the
responsibility

in recommending that Iraq should be admitted to
the

League should Iraq prove herself unworthy of the

confidence placed in her, the moral
responsibility

must rest with His Majesty's Government--

The Statesmen (Sir Francis Humphrys and Lord Cecil)
who issued this undertaking forgot the most common rule of
International Law that no state can interfere with the internal affairs
of another sovereign state.

That is a perfect example of the verbal claptrap
which has made Britain a laughing-stock and scorn through the Moslem
lands. The Assumption of Moral Responsibility sounds magnificent, but
the Iraq question was--what does it mean? Nothing at all. And its evil
lies in the pompous self-deception of its phrasing, as much as in the
desire to deceive others. Gibbon rightly laughed at the statesmen of
rotting Byzantium for their high sounding titles and phrases. They are
symptoms of national decay.

That Declaration has been written in Arabic, Turkish,
Kurdish, Hebrew, Druze and Armenian characters on every marked-place
wall throughout the Middle East. It would scarcely be exaggerating to
say that many of the British troops who fell in the Iraq rebellion of
1941, the invasion of Syria or who died on the road to Palestine would
never have perished if the sorry farce of the abandonment of the
Assyrians had not been clothed in such high-sounding and pompous
hypocrisy of self-justification. The Arab understand force. He even
appreciates slick double dealing. But he despises the weakness of
snuffling hypocrisy under the mantle of piety.

Influenced by this absurd by solemn Declaration and
after carefully emulating Pilate's washing of his hands, the Commission
reluctantly recommended Iraq's admission in 1932, whereupon the Iraqis
immediately celebrated their independence by a massacre of the Assyrian
Christians. A British eyewitness exclaimed:

I saw and heard many terrible things in the War,

but what I saw in Semel was beyond human

imagination!

And on the record, Sir John Simmon shook hands
with murder, when he stated in Geneva: "Apportionment of blame is a
barren proceeding." Some 12,000 of the victims of that massacre were
moved from Iraq to stagnate in the pestiferous valley in Syria
immediately after these massacres.

WORLD WAR II

In 1941, as the Nazi-inspired Iraq Army rose in
revolt a against the British Forces stationed in Habbaniah at a time
when the Nazis had seized Syria it was again the Assyrian Levies that
saved the situation for the British and the Allies; for, had the Iraq
rebellion succeeded, the British flank would have been completely
turned in the Middle East. Capt. A.M. Hamilton stated in May, 1945:

The British Empire, and indeed all the Allied
nations,

owe the Assyrians a heavy debt following their

key-victory at Habbaniah in 1941, which checked

German expansion to Asia Minor and stopped a

rapidly growing danger of linkage in force with

Japan via the Persian Gulf at a time when the
latter

was posed for attack. But for the Assyrians'

historic stand at Habbaniah, Rashid Ali and Nazism

would certainly have controlled Iraq; the Allies

would thus have been split at a critical phase of

affairs before they had mustered their strength
and

the vital oil region would have been lost - as
probably

would have been the war itself--for both India and

Russia would have been isolated and the
Mediterranean

outflanked.

The late Philip Guedalla, who was commissioned
by the British Air Ministry to write the story of the air war in the
Middle East, declared:

They (The Assyrians) have saved Iraq and the
whole

position in the Middle East. Indeed, they have
saved

something more. For three weeks later the Germans

went to war with Russia, and they had saved the

road through Persia, which was now vital for the
transit

of Allied aid to the USSR. If that was to be
safeguarded,

Iraq must be in sure hands; and by strange
conjunction

of events, Habbaniah had helped to save the
Kremlin.

But what is the condition of the Assyrians today?
Worse than before the massacres of 1933. Listen to Mr. Guedalla:

Few communities have shown more courage than the

Assyrians --- and their gallantry was duly
rewarded

by a long alternation of massacres and migrations.

And this despite the fact that they were
Allies in two World Wars.

SOLUTION

Will America unjustly enrich herself, as the British,
at the expense of this "Forgotten Ally" by allowing them to find their
abject and ignoble defeat in their glorious victory of 1941? This
anomalous situation constitutes the greatest challenge to the Atlantic
Charter and to the principles of the Declaration of Independence. The
racial and religious minorities in the Middle East are starving for
decent, free existence. Here there is no racial problem between the
Assyrian, the Kurd, the Hebrew, the Yazidi and the Arab. Nor is there
any deep-seated conception of democracy or communism. The problem is
solely one of Power Politics, and unless that problem is controlled,
the issue will become one of ideology - and this, to the discomfiture
of democracy.

The Middle East was the home of civilization. It is
now the nerve center of our problem. We dare not permit it to become a
hell of power politics. Another massacre of the Assyrians took place
only last December-February in the Iranian Azerbaijan during which time
some twenty-four Assyrian towns were completely annihilated.

There is but one solution to this explosive political
situation--the realization of the natural aspirations of all the native
elements. If a federated independent community, comprising all the
racial and religious minorities were to exist, like the Swiss Cantons,
it would

act as a great stabilizing influence in the Middle
East. With such an organization, the majority states would find it easy
to collaborate, forming an eventual great Semitic Federation. They have
lived together since the beginning of times; and before the advent of
alien agencies, each has respected the culture and the aspirations of
the other.

SECTION II - LIFE IN URUMIA BEFORE WORLD WAR I

TRANSCRIPT OF A TAPE JACK BADAL

NEW BRITAIN CONNECTICUT

The following is a transcript of a tape
sent by Kevin Sargis, grand-nephew of Margaret Yohannan, widow of
William Yohannan, of "Uncle Jack" made sometime in the 1980's.

The interviewers are relatives of Margie and are
probably Kevin, his father, who is Marge's brother Saul's son. "I" will
signify the interviewers and "J" will be Jack.

I. Tell us a little about the history of Assyria to
your best recollection.

J. Assyria is what is Iraq now. Between the Euphrates
and Tigris Rivers, those two rivers. They were a warrior nation. At
that time I think they were the first civilized people of the time in
that section of the world.

I. How far back?

J. About 400 years B.C.

I. Before the Armenians?

J. Before the Armenians. Armenians came later. There
was no Armenia then. What I am saying is, I said 400, could be 350
(laughter) to my recollection. Of course we know through these diggings
that they have been doing, many years ago, the English, the French,
they dug some from cities like Nineveh, the capital of Assyria and
Ashur that is in Upper Iraq.

I. When did it not become Assyria?

J. History doesn't have the exact time when these
people are recognized but from our old books that were written the
Assyrians were the first people that turned to Christianity...and from
one king they turned just the opposite. They were mercenaries--the
kings turned to Assyrians when they wanted soldiers to punish
countries--swords into plows--they threw down their arms and turned to
follow Christianity. I read something, about China, when Marco Polo
went there and a Chinese princess heard him talk about Christianity,
she said they knew about it.

J. My mother said that after becoming Christians when
they dropped their arms they became missionaries and went as far as
China and Japan so Marco Polo wasn't the first to go to China.

In National Geographic it says the princess said they
already knew about Christianity..there are some statues. I have a book
about the provinces of China.

Professor Lemsa? said that there were so many people
who had gone from Assyria to China and they figured out there should be
about 2 million descendants. I sent National Geographic

a book about China when we lived in Iran (Persia).

We lived in Urumia. Actually UR means Ur of Chaldea.

I. A state or a place?

J. Ur is a place. Mia is water in Assyrian. We have a
lake. Lake Urumia.

I. What does Urumia mean?

Discussion about meaning of names.

J. Ours was Urumia because if you look at the map
where our country was in Iraq, if you come through the Turkish
mountains through Urumia. It is much shorter. When we went from Urumia
in 1918 to Baghdad, we couldn't go through the Turkish mountains
because the Kurds were not hospitable. They said that Urumia used to be
a summer palace for the Assyrian kings. That's why the name: Ur meaning
place and Mea, meaning water is Lake Urumia.

I. What does that look like?

J. Salt water

I. How about the area around it?

J. There are towns around it. The water was very
salty.

I. What was the vegetation where you lived?

J. It was agriculture.

I. How about your house? Was it air conditioned
(laughter) What was the climate like?

J. The climate we had was good climate. Summers were
summer and winters were winter.

I. What about snow?

J. Yes, we had snow. Each season was perfect.
Compared to Connecticut-- not this extreme. Winter was winter, spring
was beautiful.

I. You were all farmers?

J. We were all farmers. That's why in the winters
then our people would migrate to Russia to earn cold cash. They had a
word for it. The majority of people were farmers.

I. When they went to Russia what kind of work did
they do?

J. They learned to paint and some were very fancy
painters.

I. Did you learn your trade over there?

J. I was too small.

I. What was your house like?

J. Our house had walls all around the house. Every
house had walls around it. It was two stories.

I. How high?

J. Some were part of the house and then you have a
door, gate to get into the yard. No fence--a wall was a part of the
house. We had a yard.

I. Did you all sleep in one bedroom or didn't you
have bedrooms?

J. We each had a bedroom. We had bedrooms upstairs
and down below was the barn where the animals were kept. We had a big
room we called the citra (?) the winter room and in that room was a
tanura (open fireplace). The fireplace was about four feet deep in the
center of the room. It was open and as wide as this table, and all
around it was from this pottery--clay--you made a fire in there and
used it to cook and on top was an opening for the smoke. Then we had a
shish with an angle on it and put kettles and pots and pans on the fire
and cooked. This fireplace was for cooking and heating in the winter.
In the winters we all would have our feet dangling, when the fire
cooled down a little, and we put a small table on top and we would have
blankets and in the evening we would eat nuts, grapes, raisins.

Laughter.

J. We used wood and buffalo chips - animal chips to
light up the fire.

I. There was no heat in the bedrooms?

J. In the bedrooms we had, like a habichi--stoves.

I. Did you have beds?

J. No we had beddings...you'd have a mattress and
pillows and they would wrap those up in the day and put them away and
they would be back rests. We used to sit on the floor on the Persian
rugs.

I. Upstairs was used only to sleep during the night?

J. Yeah.

I. Who kept the fire going?

J. The women.

I. Was there more than one family in the house?

J. Yes, my father, mother, us and my grandmother.

Discussion on grandmothers. Name Leah is mentioned.
Leah was Marge's mother.

I. How many children in your family? Were you the
only child?

J. No, I had two other brothers and they died when we
were running away.

J. We had a cow. Great grandfather was a butcher.
That's where we got our meat. We had a bekta (garden), we had fruit
trees. Away from the house.

I. What did your father do for a living and were you
well off like middle class?

J. My mother's family were very well off. Actually
they owned the village. They were educated. Their name was Badal also.

I. A Badal married a Badal?

J. My father was a happy-go-lucky kind of guy. Before
he was married he lived with his mother and in the morning she would
milk the cow and make butter and he would tell her about some need and
take butter and milk to others he knew were in need. He was the
most-liked man over there. He could never marry my mother because he
wasn't in her class. When you wanted to marry someone you sent a
matchmaker to talk for you. He sent his uncle to ask for her hand in
marriage. His uncle said "if you don't approve of my nephew, I have a
son." When my father heard that, he wasn't happy and since my father
had been to America several times, he decided to ask her himself, which
was not proper. But he did and she accepted. He used to tell us
afterward every village had a town square where young people would
gather. My mother would come with her pail to a brook and fill the pail
with water and dump in the well several times just so she could go by
him and see him in the square.

Laughter.

I. Did your father work? What did he do?

J. In the old country, father was a painter. His
grandfather was a butcher. Every Saturday the butcher would sell his
meat in the town square. My father used to help him and they had
vineyards.

I. Your mother really did have the money?

J. Yes, she was a teacher--a seminarian.

I. Why would they want to come here?

J. He came here first - 1905 or maybe 1903.

I. How old were you?

Somebody: he wasn't born yet.

J. First he went to Russia as a painter with Joe
Averdis' father.

I. No kidding?

J. He was a real artist. My father was an apprentice
in Russia.

I. Why did everybody go to Russia?

J. Because we were close to Russia and we needed cold
cash.

I. Was that the place to go?

J. That was the nearest place you could go.

I. How far were you from Russia?

J. They would walk about three days until they got to
Araxes--the river between Russia and Persia. From there to Tiflis
(Tbilisi)--they used to go and somebody had already got to Tiflis so
they used to go back and forth.

I. Was it 100 miles. Three days walk?

J. They would walk for three days and you would take
your chadda and drink.

I. Tea?

J. No tea, just spring water.

I. How did you get around - walk?

J. No, they had horses.

I. Camels?

J. No, water buffalo--your grandfather, Moshe, used
to use one.

I. I still want to know how they came to this country.

J. Why did everyone else come to this country. For a
better life.

I. But your mother's family was well off.

J. But my father was not and he wanted to come. He
came before and he worked in Landers Dairy in New Britain.

I. Why would he come here?

J. . I told you before, because other people were
here.

I. My father landed first in New York, he came to New
Britain.

J. You had to land in New York and they knew people
here. The first time he came he was happy-go-lucky. He came here and
made enough money to go back and everyone who came back from America
brought money, but my father, on his way back stopped at a city and he
said he had only one gold piece and said to bring wine, and so he came
home drunk as a lord and the only thing he had was an old pair of shoes
and rubbers for the shoes. His father said everyone brought money from
America, but his son brought back shoes inside shoes.

He was teased so much and he came back and became a
baker here. Besides the dairy job, he had a horse and buggy and a lot
of our people lived together. Maybe 8 to 10 men living in one place and
they used a lot of bread and he brought baskets of bread and was asked
who is going to eat all this.

(Discussion on somebody's marriage.)

I. You were how old when you came to this country?

J. I was 16.

I. And your father?

J. The second time he came to this country he had a
brother that I'm named after. His name was Moshe. Robbi Moshe was a
teacher. So he was bringing him back here and at that time you could
get on a boat and come here and they would examine you and if you
didn't pass the exam, they would send you back. My father read that
Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, as a U.S. Senator, he thought, had that rule
changed so that you could be examined where you took the boat. Some of
our people went to Vladivostok in Siberia and came here.

Some of our people also went to Japan because of the
quotas because their quotas weren't full there. So he and his brother
went to Ellis Island. He said something got in his brother's eye and it
was red and watery. Your eyes had to be good so they sent him back and
they went to Liverpool, England, and he left Moshe with Presbyterian
missionaries to look after him until his eye got better and to send him
back to America. My father came here and he never found him again. He
went back to Liverpool, he never found him or the missionaries.

I. Was he a younger brother?

J. Yeah. Then my father came back in 1911. He went
back and forth and I was born in 1912. The war started in 1916 and he
returned and brought back eight thousand dollars. You know 17 Main
Street in New Britain--an Irish lady--he lived in that house and the
owner had a daughter she wanted my father to marry. She owned almost
all of Main street, which was a cow path. He said no, he promised his
mother he wouldn't get married in America and went back to marry my
mother.

I. How did he get eight thousand dollars?

J. He was a hard worker. Then when he came back, the
war started and he bought wheat with his money because the Russians
were coming to Iran . But when the war started, they looted the
warehouse and he lost everything.

I. Which war?

J. In 1918--that's when the war came to Persia.

I. When did you meet my father? (this was Saul,
Margie's brother)

J. I met him in 1918, you were 6 or 7 years old.

I. My father must have been 12 or 13.

I. The Turks were part of this war or just Assyrians
and Armenians?

J. There were more Armenians and more of them got
killed. In our village the Turks killed 100 people and took the young
men and shot them.

I. 100 out of how many?

J. Maybe a couple of thousand.

I. They were killing the males and taking the young
females?

J. Before that, we ran away. You know, we had that
thing in the winter house and a smaller one - fire pit - for snacks. So
when everyone was running away, you could hear the guns. I was 6 years
old--my grandmother, and my father was home and he wasn't feeling well,
- she was making bread in that fire pit and who came by but Uncle
Ephraim's brother Eshoo--the oldest one--he was a husky lad. He said,
"Auntie, what are you doing?: She said, "I'm making bread and he took
the shinda (dough?) and threw it into the fire and he said "get up, the
looters are coming." So he went and we had a pair of oxen and he tied
them to the wagon and loaded sacks of flour and the gellion (water pot)
because there were three kids - we had two other brothers and they died
when we were running away - and my father was not feeling too well and
if it wasn't for him (Eshoo) they would have come and massacred us
because we were the last to leave the village.

I. Where did you go?

J. We were just running away - for two months. I
remember running away.

I. Was Saul with you at that time/

J. I don't remember. I just remember running away.

Discussion on who ran away. Jack talks about Arnold
was in this country in the U.S. Arnold's grandmother and his father and
Auntie Margie and Auntie Shalam were fleeing the same, as you know, and
your mother and your family. I don't know, we were the last ones that
probably left.

(Discussion on guns.)

I. Where did they get the weapons?

J. They had guns there. They made guns.

Further discussion on sons and daughters; marriages
between cousins; interviewers talking at same time.

J. Cousins married cousins because we were an
agricultural country. Everyone owned something. The main reason they
didn't allow a girl to marry outside the family was because if we
married from another village, the girl had to take her share and they
would break up the land and they forced them to marry cousins to keep
the land together.

The second reason was that we lived in a Moslem
country and Moslem and Christians do not mix and Moslem law is if a
girl marries a Christian boy, he had to turn to be a Moslem.

Tape ends with interviewers and Jack laughing and
talking.

Transcribed January 13, 1997

Irene Kliszus.

EXCERPTS FROM PSALMS AND SONG OF A
PERSIAN

By The Rev.Mishael S. Naby

"I became a prisoner of the Turks in my native town.

I had not been cruel to Moslem neighbors as others
had.

My Moslem friends testified that I had helped them as
I could.

The first words of a Turkish captain to me were, My
son, do not fear.

It happens that guilty and not guilty both are in
prison.

I saw prisoners dead in heaps from starvation and
sickness.

My Lord helped me and showed me how to escape.

He gave me courage to walk two hundred miles for
refuge.

I cannot forget my experience in my native town of
Urumia

It was here I met the saintly Rabi Pera Amrikhus

Who taught me more about the power and wisdom of the
Cross

His spirit of self-sacrifice to glorify Christ
strengthened me.

I learned from Presbyterian missionaries how to spend
my life

Saints like Cochran and Shedd sacrificed their lives
for Christ

We Assyrians without missionaries could not have such
education

They raised saints such as Sa' id Khan and Rabi Pera,
the real saints.

I was glad to hear about the Russian Revolution of
1917

I assumed the cause of it was to help the poor and
needy

I was sorry when I learned the poor had no real
freedom:

More sorry when I knew the revolutionists hate God
and His church.

The Rev. Naby was an Assyrian Persian, born in
Rizaieh, Iran. After graduating from the Presbyterian Mission College
in his native country, he was taken prisoner by the Turkish Army. After
his release, he became a teacher, and in 1934,a pastor.

He was the pastor of the Assyrian-Persian
Presbyterian Mission Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mr. Naby
also administered relief aid in Hamadan under the British. Mary Aurahan
said he served with integrity and honesty in all his dealings and never
defrauded nor became rich as a result of his service to the refugees.

SECTION III - INTRODUCTION OF PRESBYTERIAN WORK AND
ITS SIGNIFICANCE

Mary Yohannan Aurahan, her sister Juan and brother
William, were born in Gulpashan, on the Urumia Plain of Persia.They
were the descendants of the ancient Assyrian empire. Their grandfather,
Joseph Yohannan, was the pastor (Kasha) of the Gulpashan Presbyterian
Church.astor (Kasha) of the Gulpashan Presbyterian Church. Their
great-grandfather was a bishop in the Nestorian Church. He was the also
the translator for

Justin Perkins and rode out to meet the first wave of
Protestant missionaries from America circa 1835.

The closest urban citywas Tabriz. In 1834 Tabriz was
the most important city in Persia and the location of all foreign
embassies. It was still a walled city and the walls with their eight
gates were still in a reasonably good state of repair. It was an
important commercial centre for the exchange of goods between Persia
and Europe, and it had a population of about 80,000.

The religion of most Assyrians in the 19th century
was Nestorian Christian and they lived nestled among those of the
Mohammadan faith. In 1830 Presbyterian missionaries from America began
an active mission work in Persia; changing in many ways the religion
and lifestyle of the Assyrians. In 1833, the Presbyterians formed the
West Persian mission. They built schools and hospitals. The first
couple to reach the mission field were the Rev. Justin and Mrs. Perkins
who reached Tabriz in 1834. Justin was 29 when he reached Tabriz.

Perkins, with the help of Mar Yohannan, reduced the
spoken Syhriac language to a systematic form, which could be printed.
The colloquial languagae was a different dialect and not just a debased
form of Church Syriac and it had numerous Persian and Turkish words in
it. By using it for their prayers and hymns, Perkins and the other
missionaries gave it a standing which has enabled it to become the
medium of modern Syriac writing.

* * * * * * * * * *

AMERICAN BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS FOR FOREIGN
MISSIONS

The following information was taken from the files of
the Presbyterian Church (USA) Department of History, 425 Lombard
Street, Philadelphia, PA 19147--Telephone 215-627-1852

The Presbyterian Church U.S.A.'s Board of Foreign
Missions assumed responsibility for the American Board of Commissioners
for Foreign Missions' mission station at Urumia, Persia in 1871. The
Persia Mission was then divided in 1883, at which time Urumia and
Tabriz were organized as the West Persia Mission.

The Board of Foreign Missions--Iran (Persia) Mission
Secretaries' Files, 1881-1968 contain personal and station reports, as
well as correspondence of the West Persia Mission during 1914-15 which
may be helpful.

* * * * * * *

Iran (Persia)

American Protestant missionary efforts in Persia
began in 1829 when Eli Smith and Timothy Dwight were sent by the ABCFM
(American Board Commissioners Foreign Missions) to explore the regions
of north-western Persia. Upon their recommendation, the ABCFM
established a mission to the Nestorian Christians at Urumia in 1834 and
appointed Justin Perkins as its first missionary. In 1871, the ABCFM's
Mission to Persia was transferred to the PCUSA, thus formally
commencing Presbyterian work in Persia.

Within a decade the PCUSA's Persia Mission had
expanded to include new stations at Teheran (1872), Urumia (1873),
Tabriz (1873) and Hamadan (1880).

Due to the vast differences between stations, the
Persia Mission was divided in 1883 with Urumia and Tabriz organized as
the West Persia Mission while Hamadan and Teheran constituted the East
Persia Mission. The latter was later to include the new stations of
Resht and Kazvin (1906), Kermanshah (1910) and Meshed (1911). The East
and West Persian Missions were later reunited in 1931 and were known as
the Persia and after 1935, the Iran Mission.

The PCUSA's work in Persia was evangelical,
educational and medical in nature. Numerous local congregations were
organized and eventually served by native ministers of the Central
Evangelical Church of Iran, organized in 1934. Medical work began as
early as 1835 and progressed during the latter half of the nineteenth
century. Formal hospitals were built in Kermanshah (1882), Teheran
(1890) and Tabriz (1913) with similar institutions established in
Meshed, Hamadan and Resht.

Numerous schools were established, many of which
developed into multinational institutions such as the Alborz Foundation
(Armaghan Institute), Iran Bethel (Damavand) College, the Community
School of Teheran and the Mehz Jordan Schools.

The Iran Mission was formally dissolved in 1960.
Since then, the UPCUSA has worked with the Evangelical Church of Iran,
providing both personnel and financial support requisite to maintain
certain medical and educational institutions.

2/97

Urumia 1871

On Wednesday, February 19, 1997, Edward and Irene
Kliszus and Laura Keyser went to Philadelphia to the Department of
History of the Presbyterian Church USA, 425 Lombard Street - known as
the Presbyterian Historical Society. The purpose was to review
missionary reports from Urumia, Persia from the 1800's to 1919-1920.

The Presbyterian Church's Board of Foreign Missions
assumed responsibility for the American Board of Commissioners for
Foreign Missions' station at Urumia in 1871. The Persia Mission was
then divided in 1883, at which time Urumia and Tabriz were organized as
the West Persia Mission.

The name most associated with this mission is the
Rev. J. H. Shedd . The following pages are copied directly from his
original letter to the mission board, reporting on the work in Urumia
and Persia dated sometime in 1871.

His son was the Rev. Dr. William A. Shedd who
succeeded his father in the mission field in Urumia and is the Dr.
Shedd whom most of the survivors of the Turkish Massacre knew.

THE MISSION TO PERSIA

The enterprise is not a small nor feeble one. There
is a mission at work, with all the appliances and parts, to perform all
the functions of an aggressive Christianity in the heart of Asia. There
is the press, issuing half a million of pages yearly; the training
schools for young men and young women; a band of over 50 native pastors
and evangelists, many of them earnest and able preachers and laborers
in work and doctrine; an aggregate of over 80 congregations organized
into ecclesiastical bodies, and in process of training to carry forward
the work among the masses around them.

The results already reached are great, not so much in
themselves as in their bearing upon the future. It is under the
responsibility and aim of reaching the whole people, that our helpers
have been reared and our congregations gathered. And we are just
beginning to realize this ultimate aim. The field already explored and
reached more or less directly, by the influence of our outstations,
tours, colporteurs and books, is twice as large as New England,
covering nearly the boundaries of Ancient Media and Assyria. And the
region which we are called upon directly and at once to evangelize is
larger still, with a population of four or five millions at the least.

It covers the very oldest centre of the human race,
touching Mount Ararat and the Caspian on the north, bounded on the west
and south by the Tigris as it sweeps by the site of Nineveh and
Babylon, embracing the capitals or their ruins of nearly a dozen
ancient and modern empires, with the tombs of Cyrus and Darius, of
Daniel and Esther, and abounding in the most wonderful antiquities, and
rock inscriptions of the East. On this original hearth-stone of
mankind, the sons of Shem, Ham and Japheth--the Semitic, Turanian and
Arian races are co-mingled and fully represented in the peoples and
languages of our day. For the full prosecution of our missionary work,
six different languages are demanded; Syriac, Armenian, Turkish,
Persian, Koordish and the dialect spoken by the Jews. In races and
religions our field covers, two Christian sects, the remnants of the
Jewish captivity, all the divisions and secret sects of Moslems, and
some relics of the Ancient Pagan and Magian religions. Let us glance at
each.

1. The Syriac-speaking population embraces all that
is left of the Ancient Nestorian Church, after the massacres of
Tamerlane, and the centuries of Mohammedan oppressions since. The
Nestorian portion are about 100,000 in number, with 40,000 or 50,000
more who have united with the Church of Rome, and call themselves
Chaldeans.

Among the purely Nestorian portion, our work has met
with its success up to the present time. There remains a great work
still to be done, in fact, more than two hundred villages to be
evangelized, chiefly among the mountaineers, and the Chaldeans on the
plains of the Tigris. The large body of Chaldeans are, at present, very
much disaffected toward the Pope, and the past two years hundreds of
copies of the Scriptures have been sold among them, and at this time,
two or three of our best pioneer preachers are abundant in labors in
Ancient Assyria.

The work needs to be pushed on with increased energy
from our station at Oroomiah, as every year there are broader openings,
and larger demands for the Gospel. There is great encouragement to
labor for the Nestorians also as a missionary people. Nestorian
evangelists are now among the Armenians and Persians, in Tabreez,
Hamadan and Isfahan, and among the Malakans of Russia, and there is
good reason to hope that some now alive will traverse, as their fathers
did, but with a purer faith, the 2,000 or 3,000 miles, lying between us
and the mission stations in India and China.

2. The Armenians. In our mission field there are two
distinct centers of this enterprising race. One of these is Tabreez,
the commercial metropolis of Persia. There are about 25,000 Armenians
in this city and scattered over the province of which it is the
capital. In the city, and in half a dozen villages, the Gospel already
has gained a hold, and is striking its roots deeper and deeper. Still
more broadly light is diffused. Preparatory work is done, and the great
want today is for two American missionaries to take up and develop the
work begun.

The other center is about 400 miles further east. The
Armenians there are the remnants of a captivity as ruthless as any
recorded in history. In the year 1605, under Shah Abbas the Great, the
Armenians about Mount Ararat were forcibly driven from their homes, and
after incredible sufferings, they were settled in the province of Irak.

These colonies have had a history of tragic interest,
and they now appeal to the Christians of America, who are doing so much
for their brethren in Turkey, to carry to them also, the Gospel in its
purity. They occupy the large cities of Teheran, Isfahan and Hamadan,
and about 70 villages in the intervening regions, and they are as
accessible, and as needy, as the Nestorians were thirty years ago.
Nothing should prevent us from extending our assistance to them at
once, by planting a missionary station at Hamadan.

With proper effort, and the promised blessing of God
upon that effort, a few years of labor would be crowned with many souls
saved, and Churches gathered. A company of brethren in Hamadan form
already a hopeful nucleus, if but properly taught and trained, for a
reformation in Central Persia. Two of their young men are now under
instruction, in Oroomiah, for the work. Thus the Master is leading the
way, and the appeal from that body of nominal Christians, arising from
their past history and present condition, is peculiarly affecting. It
is the stronger if we consider their position, in the heart of Persia.
They are the seed grain of the Kingdom, for the millions of Mohammedans
around them.

This Armenian field in Persia, in its wants and
relations to the future, challenges the attention of the best of our
students and young pastors. It offers a peculiar sphere of usefulness,
where souls are perishing for lack of vision. "Lift up your eyes and
look on the fields, for they are ripe already to the harvest."

3. The Persian Mohammedans. These form the great mass
of the population. They are Sheahs, which means sectaries, as they
dissent from the Sunnee or traditional faith, professed by the Turks,
Arabs, Koords, etc.

They differ from the Sunnees in rejecting the first
three Caliphs, Abu Beker, Omar and Osman, and in regarding Ali as the
only legitimate successor of Mohammed. Ali, the cousin of the prophet
and the husband of Fatimah his daughter, is the hero of their faith,
and no bound is set to the veneration and fanaticism of which Ali is
the object. He possesses super human excellence and miraculous power,
and the constant testimony is to render him divine honors.

Ali is the hero-god of Persia, and his wife, Fatimah,
is exalted as no other female in Mohammedan lands, and his sons and
descendants, the twelve imaums are the personages, about whom cluster
their traditions in the past, and their hope for the future. The
Persians in ages past have changed their religion oftener than any
other people in the past.

By natural disposition, they are far more tolerant
than the Turks, and while legally, death is the penalty for apostasy
from Islam, practically, a very wide liberty is given to religious
discussion and belief. It is a great thing to find a people who are
ready to hear the missionary, and to argue the matter with him. This
the Persians are willing to do, and still more, there is evidence to
those who are looking for the coming of the Kingdom of our Lord in that
land, that God is working.

In fact, we stand amazed at the change in the temper
of the Moslem population, in the past few years. They seem to invite
the native preachers and the missionaries to religious conversation,
and in every effort we have made, the opportunity has exceeded
expectation.

With the past year, scores of men have come privately
and repeatedly, to the religious teachers. In fact, beneath the outward
conformity, there is a seething fermentation, and secret sects and
societies are unsettling in the faith of multitudes. The Gospel, to a
considerable extent is read. Henry Martyn's translation is doing its
work in the palaces of princes, and in the shops of artisans, and an
earnest English missionary in the spirit of Henry Martyn, is boldly
proclaiming Christ, in the east of Persia.

Some are believing; a few are asking for baptism,
many we may hope are in the attitude of seeking the Lord, if happily
they might feel after him, and find him. We do not mean, that any large
numbers are positive inquirers. The death penalty stares every one in
the face but we do believe that God is working on the hearts of men.
The opportunity for preaching Christ is wonderfully enlarged, and it
should be embraced. Even though the faith of some be sealed in blood,
it will but hasten the triumph of the Gospel.

In the west of Persia the Mussulman population to the
number of at 2,000,000 speak a dialect of the Turkish, and for them a
separate version of the Bible is much needed. Our missions have made a
beginning in supplying this great want. But to complete the work, the
time of one missionary should be fully given to it for years to come.

4. The Heretical Moslem Sects. Here is the next
opening and demand for Christian effort. The two prominent sects are
the Babees and Ali Illahees. The former of these are the adherents of a
new religion of fiery zeal and fanaticism, in fact, one of the most
remarkable religious developments of the East.

This sect, though apparently suppressed by the sword
is not dead, nor is its history ended. Its martyrs have been numerous,
and if put to the test, thousands today stand ready to endure torture
and death. The great advantage to the Christian cause from the Babees,
is to weaken the dominant faith, and shake the general confidence in
the old religion. Thus among the Babees themselves, and among the
multitudes, who are in a state of doubt through their influence, there
is an immense field, open for the seed of Christianity.

The Ali Illahees, are a population numbering hundreds
of thousands, who are no more Mohammedans, than were their Pagan
fathers. They outwardly bow the neck to the Mohammedan yoke, but really
they keep the superstitions and secret rites of their ancestors. They
are sunk in utter ignorance, and the masses confess that they are
without light or knowledge. They and the Babees, both are prescribed
sects, both admit in a sense the divinity of Christ, and hence they are
tolerant and open to the plainest proclamation of the truth.

5. The Koords are an aboriginal race, in their
mountain homes, between Turkey and Persia, and numbering at least
1,000,000. They are Moslems of the Sunnee or orthodox faith. Our native
helpers and Christians mingle among them, and have diffused
considerable light.

One Koordish Mullah professes himself a sincere
believer, and in a few cases whole villages have asked for instruction.
Deacon Tamo, a Nestorian brother, well versed in ancient Syriac, Hebrew
and English, and having perfect command of the idiomatic Koordish, is
engaged in translating the Bible into their tongue.

Among the Koords, is the strange sect of the
Yesidees, some 20,000 or 30,000 strong. Their faith consists in extreme
reverence for Satan. They have no books, no readers, and their religion
is falling into decay. No direct effort has been made for their
evangelization. How soon we do not know, but surely, the time is coming
when they, and all the Koords are to have the Gospel preached unto
them, and when their patriarchal system of clans and tribes will be a
powerful aid in bringing them to Christ.

6. The Jews. We must not forget the lost sheep of the
house of Israel, for we are commissioned" to the Jew first, and also to
the Gentiles." Scattered over our field, from the Tigris to the
Caspian, in more than one hundred towns and villages, to the number of
50,000 or 60,000 souls, are remnants of both the Assyrian and
Babylonian captivities, dwelling by the same "rivers," and in the same
"cities of the Medes," where they were originally placed as captives.

These Jews are as favorably situated for Christian
effort, as any Jews in the world, and they are as needy. Upon them the
curse has come to the uttermost, and they are most deeply oppressed,
debased, and sadly sunken, especially their females, in a pitiable and
corrupt state of ignorance and sin.

And for these Jews, the time of blessing and
salvation is drawing near. The missionary is regarded by them as a
friend, and is sometimes invited to teach in their synagogues. They are
accessible, and many of them listen with attention, to the claims of
Jesus of Nazareth. In a few cases, that same Jesus has been accepted,
as the Messiah, and at the present time there is, in Oroomiah, a band
of inquirers. We should pray and labor in faith, believing that a
remnant according to the election of grace, shall be saved.

Such are the principal features of our field and work
in Persia. No thoughtful reader can avoid the conclusion that the
providence's and commands of our Lord, alike call upon us to go
forward. It is the deep conviction of every missionary, and earnest
native laborer in the field, that the time has come, to strike boldly
out, and open new centers, and enter on more active and aggressive
efforts.

The results already accomplished are preparatory, and
the means now employed are such as only need increasing and repeating,
to carry the Gospel over the immense expanse of Central Asia that lies
before us.

The obstacles are many, but none are so mighty, that
they may not be overcome by God's truth and Spirit. Our name has been
changed from "Mission to the Nestorians" to "Mission to Persia," in
view of the broad fields of Persia, now ripe to the harvest. And just
at this juncture, the re-united Presbyterian Church receives the work,
and is to meet the new demands on its devotion and liberality.

Not from failure but from success comes up the urgent
call for a re-enforcement. In our field today with its multiplied forms
of labor among Armenians, Mussulmans, Nestorians and Jews, with its
demands of the press, its training schools, its translations, the care
of the churches, the peculiar responsibilities of superintending
numerous helpers, the calls for touring, visitation of out-stations,
requiring journeys in one direction, of twelve days, to the west and in
the other direction, of fourteen days to the southeast - to meet all
the duties and demands, there is but one mission station, that at
Oroomiah, and but three clerical missionaries, and one missionary
physician.

The missionaries on the ground are Rev. J. G.
Cochran, who has labored since 1848 (his wife and family are in this
country) Rev. G. W. Coan and wife, all in the work since 1849; Rev.
B.Labaree and wife, since 1860; Dr. T. L. Van Norden and wife, since
1866; and Miss N. J. Dean since 1868. By the last mail the news came
that Messrs. Coan and Labaree were both ill, over-burdened by care of
labor, and they and Mr. Cochran also may soon be compelled to leave the
field. So there is real danger that the mission collapse while all
Persia is open before us.

Says the annual report, prepared by one of these
brethren last May: "We are almost discouraged, as we view the
necessities of the field, and our inability to meet them. Have no
hesitation in saying that Tabreez and Hamadan should be occupied at
once, by full corps of missionaries. No amount of force at this station
can meet the growing work of those important outposts. Of both these
places the facts presented speak for themselves.

"Here in Oroomiah, our present force is utterly
inadequate for the growing demands upon our time and strength. Mr.
Shedd was absent from the station last year, in tours with and without
his family, three-fourths of the year, and now he is leaving for a
visit to America.

"On his return, another must probably leave. We ask
how is it possible for us with our reduced force, to meet the wants of
our field, or the expectation excited by the new name "Mission to
Persia"" Scores of thousands of immortal souls are waiting to be taught
by us, the way of life. God is unmistakably answering the prayers of
His people in behalf of this dark kingdom, and now His providence call
the Churches, to take up the work He has prepared for them. Will the
friends of Christ at home come forward, and furnish us the men and
means to plant the standard of the cross among those waiting peoples,
or will they bid them still to sit in darkness and death?"

February 1997

THE NESTORIANS

The Rev. J. H. Shedd

Missionary to Persia

The Presbyterian Church

Urumia, Persia

1871

In the last number of this magazine we gave some
account of the present condition and wants to the "Mission to Persia."
In this number we would record a little of what the Lord has wrought
among the Nestorians. The difficulty is that the record of faith, toil
and success is too long a one to be compressed into a sketch like this.

1. Who are the Nestorians, and where do they live?
Their home is the border land between the two great empires of Turkey
and Persia, and the two great Mohammedan sects the Sunnees and the
Sheahs. It is a mountain region, consisting of seven or eight lofty
ridges running parallel, full of torrents and deep ravines, of rocky
summits, abrupt and almost inaccessible, containing but few passes, and
those seem narrow and easily defensible. Secure, moreover, owing to the
rigor of the climate, from hostile invasion for more than half the
year, it has defied all attempts to effect its permanent subjugation,
whether made by Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, Parthians, or Turks.

Nature seems to have constructed it as a nursery of
hardy and vigorous men, and a stumbling-block to conquerors, a thorn in
the side of every powerful empire which rises in this part of the great
eastern continent. The vastness of such a region are the last resort of
the persecuted, and here is found the persecuted remnant of the most
ancient and most eastern of the Christian sects.

The largest portion of near 80,000 souls dwell in the
center of Koordistan, in the midst of a million of Koords. An eastern
branch of near 30,000 has extended over the Persian frontier and into
the sunny plains about the Oroomiah lake, and a western branch of near
40,000 is found on the slopes of the mountains and valley bordering the
Tigris. These 150,000 souls are doubtless the descendants of the
ancient Semitic inhabitants of Assyria and Chaldea.

Their ancestors received the Gospel from the apostles
or the disciples of the first century, and in the language which Christ
Himself used in his tours through Galilee, and in which in his dying
agony he cried in a loud voice, "Eloi! Eloi! Lama Sabachthani!! My God!
My God! Why hast Thou forsaken me!" The present language is properly
called the Syro-Chaldean, and the people call themselves Suriye, i.e.
Syrians, or Kaldani, i.e. Chaldeans.

Without entering into the history of the ancient
councils, or the process by which this oldest of the sects separated
from the church of Constantinople and Antioch, and received from
western writers the name of Nestorians, it is enough to say, that they
have an early record of which they may well be proud, they count their
army of martyrs by hundreds of thousands, and from their training
schools missionaries were sent eastward preaching the Gospel, says
Gibbon, "to the Bactrians, Huns, Persians, Indians, Pers Armenians,
Medes and Elamites.

Their zeal overleaped the limits which confined the
ambition and curiosity of the Greeks and Romans, and they pursued
without fear the footsteps of the roving Tartar.

Their missionary spirit continued for centuries, and
while Europe was locked in the slumber of the dark ages this church of
the far east was engaged in grand aggressive efforts. From the seventh
to the fourteenth centuries they planted the standard of the cross on
the Himalayas, in the depths of Tartary, and among the millions of
China. But alas! they taught no longer the pure faith and piety of the
apostles, but a formalism which proved unequal to the day of trial.

The inward life of the church departed before its
outward glory. The whole structure fell before the persecutions and
wars of the Tartars. Especially Tamerlane seems to have followed these
Christians with a relentless fury, and to have put to the sword all who
did not escape to the recesses of the mountains. But a wreck of the
ancient church remained. The patriarch fled from Baghdad to Mosul and
Elkosh and thence for greater security to the inaccessible mountain
village of Kochanis, where he now resides. The fragment on the west of
the mountains in the Tigris Valley yielded to the intrigues of the
Jesuits, and united with the church of Rome. Those in the mountains and
in Persia for the most part remained faithful to their patriarch and
church, but were much harassed by papal emissaries when they were first
made known to the Protestants of America.

About the year 1827, that erratic adventurer
and converted Jew, Dr. Joseph Wolf, in traveling through the east, made
a flying visit to the Nestorians of Persia. A paragraph quoted from his
writings led Dr. Anderson of the American Board to direct Messrs. Smith
and Dwight in exploring the Armenian field to extend their tour to
Oroomiah. This was in 1831, and these two missionaries were the first
Americans to penetrate western Asia. As they stood face to face with
that remnant of Christians, hidden away for so many ages, and
resembling the Waldenses somewhat in their history--as they saw the
purity of their creed and the simplicity of their worship, found them
possessed of a singular reverence for the Scriptures, and rejecting
oracular confession and priestly absolution, they felt that a mission
should be begun among them.

The mission they so strongly recommended was fairly
begun in 1835. Its various stages of progress may be designated as
follows: 1. Preparatory 2. The ingathering 3. The organizing 4. The
expanding. We will glance at each.

1.The preparatory work. When Messrs. Perkins and
Grant reached Oroomiah they found a people entirely accessible. In
fact, their arrival was one general welcome.

Mar Yohannan rode forth at full gallop to
meet them, and in their excursions to the villages, the simple-hearted
peasants flocked about them as the common people about the Savior, and
sometimes came out with drums and fifes to greet them.

But like the Jews, it was a temporal kingdom the
people wanted. As the missionaries became more familiarly acquainted
with them the hopes of speedy success vanished. "The valley was full of
bones, and there were very many, and lo! they were very dry."

Civilly and socially the people were ground to the
earth by their feudal Mohammedan lords. Morally they were more deeply
degraded, little, if any superior to the Mussulmans, among whom they
dwelt. The Bible was venerated as a relic, and the few copies existing
were wrapped in endless folds of cloth, and laid away in the dingy
churches to be brought out on great saints' days to be kissed not read,
and as the highest authority by which to take an oath. To touch the
ancient filled them with superstitious awe; to understand or obey it,
was a thing unknown.

All were enslaved by onerous fasts. Sin for fifty
weeks, and atone for it by fifty days of fasting, was their practical
creed. Water baptism supplied all they knew of regeneration. Lewd
dances formed their most popular social intercourse, and beastly
drunkenness was so common as to excite no comment. The condition of the
female sex still more impressively told how low the people were fallen.
Mohammedanism is a religion of lust, which degrades women to be the
tempter and slave of men, and the Nestorians shut in by this religion,
and imbibed its spirit, if not adopted its form.

"What is a daughter!" exclaims the father when told
that a female child is born to him. All births take place in the
stable, where woman resorts in her hour of sorrow, where she often
dies. The house of a Nestorian peasant consists of a single apartment,
built round with walls of earth and with earth floor, while the roof is
a mass of the same material, supported by beams and pillars.

The tendour or oven, is a deep hole in the center,
where all the cooking is done with dried manure for fuel. The acrid
smoke fairly glistens on the wall. A hole above answers for chimney and
window. In this one room all work, eat and sleep, usually three or four
generations under a patriarchal system, the efficacy of which consists
in oaths and blows. How can a mother's or sister's, or wife's affection
be cherished in such a place? Man is the tyrant, and woman the drudge
of all, doing the hardest work without sympathy or love, in the midst
of frequent brawls, expecting beatings, and ready, whenever the
opportunity offers, to return bitter oaths and reviling, and even to
fight and scratch, or, if not able to do this, she returns crushed or
embittered to the stable or the fields.

The domestic state of Christians in Persia everywhere
reveals the serpent's trail. We usually turn away from its details,
behind the scenes, with sickness of heart. Thirty years ago the
Nestorians truly sat in the region and shadow of death.

The first formal work was to prepare a series of
cards in the common language. This language had never before been
reduced to writing. The first school was begun in a cellar, in January
1836 with seven small boys. This was the germ of the male seminary,
which since has sent forth scores of pious and well furnished preachers
and teachers. About two years later, Mrs. Grant succeeded in collecting
a few little girls, the germ of the female seminary.

In untidiness, disorder and mischief, every little
girl was a Topsy, but it was the beginning of great results. Some of
these same girls have become through grace and education, renewed and
refined women, laboring faithfully to elevate their sex and to honor
Christ. In the first year of missionary residence, three village
schools were opened. This number increased till over seventy such
schools were in successful operation in less than ten years.
Sabbath-schools followed, and as the language was sufficiently at
command, stated and itinerant labors at preaching the Word.

Many difficulties arose from the government, which is
a jealous and intolerant despotism, but deliverance always came. A
serious obstacle in the first years was sickness. Of the first three
years they say "an average of one half of our number have been sick
half the time." At one time five of the children were removed by
measles in as many weeks. The first death in the missionary band was
that of Mrs. Grant. She was called away at the early age of
twenty-five. Saying to the Nestorians about her, "Christ is my all. If
I have one desire to live, it is for you and your people. For myself, I
am ready to depart."

Her life of love and labor and her triumphant death
made a solemn and deep impression, and doubtless prepared some hearts
for the Spirit's influence. The bishops said, "We will bury her in the
church where none but holy men are buried, and we will dig her grave
with our own hands."

After a few years' residence in the town a health
retreat became indispensable. Providence directed to Seir, a mountain
hamlet, a thousand feet above the level of the town, and over five
thousand feet above the ocean. Here is the male seminary, and here the
little cemetery which encloses our precious dead. By this change of
residence for part of the year, and by living in the second story, the
health of the mission has been as good as the average health in this
country. The force of laborers was increased by several able
men--Holladay and Stocking in 1837; Dr. Wright and Mr. Breath, the
printer in 1840, and Mr. Stoddard and Miss Fiske in 1843.

In 1840, the printing press arrived, an event of
great interest and wonder to the people. The Scriptures were so far
translated that portions were at once struck off. Some of the ablest of
the clergy had aided in the translation, and the contents of their rare
ancient manuscripts were given back to them in a language which all
could understand. They stood in mute astonishment and rapture to see
their language in print; and as soon as they could speak the
exclamation was, "It is time to give glory to God, since printing is
begun among our people.

exclamation was, "It is time to give glory to God,
since printing is begun among our people."

In these various methods a great preparatory work was
done. Privately and publicly, and by teaching, preaching and printing
the seed was sown broadcast. Hundreds had learned to read. Scores of
the ecclesiastics had been under instruction. The people were friendly.
The missionaries prophesied to the dry bones; but there were few if any
signs of movement or of life.

2. The in gathering. After the lapse of ten years of
faith and toil the harvest came. The year 1844-45 was a year of trial.
Clouds of persecution and trouble were thick and heavy. All the village
schools were disbanded. Mr. Stoddard was at the head of the male
seminary and Miss Fiske of the female; but the prospect was
discouraging, and hearts of some began to fail.

In December 1845, the first unmistakable indications
of the Spirit were observed in the boys' school, and early in January,
two girls asked Miss Fiske for a day to set apart to seek their Savior.
A missionary servant was anxious, and soon hopefully changed. This was
all. But on the 19th of the month the Spirit came down in both schools
with wonderful power.

Says Mr. Stoddard: "From that time the interest
rapidly increased, until two days after, as I was going to preaching
service with one of the brethren, we heard the voice of prayer
intermingled with sobs on every side. After exercises of the deepest
solemnity we closed the meeting, but no one moved from his seat. When
at last they left, they flocked to my study, and it was filled
overflowing with anxious inquirers. Then, with emotions that I can
never describe, I unfolded with faltering tongue the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, to one company after another, till near midnight.

The morning light brought with it a repetition of
similar scenes . Rising very early from troubled sleep, I found
inquirers waiting to be guided to JESUS."

Thus the work with deepening power continued for
about two months in the two schools. At the close of that time fifty of
the pupils had been hopefully converted. It was not long before the
influence was felt in the mission premises. The teachers, several of
the priests and deacons, the printers, some of whom had been
exceedingly depraved, were reached.

Thence the work spread into several of the villages,
making such triumphs of grace as awakened devout wonder and
thanksgiving. Such cases as Deacon Gruegis, of Tergawar, are among the
remarkable conversions of the world, recalling almost the miraculous
change in Saul of Tarsus. Indeed, this first revival among the
Nestorians was a season of Pentecostal power and fruits.

It entirely changed the face of our missionary work
into fertility and beauty. Other revivals of even greater power
followed, forming the special feature for years in the history of the
mission. In the next twelve years, there had been eleven such
visitations of grace in the male seminary, and twelve in the female.
Many of the pupils, both male and female, had meanwhile gone out as
teachers and laborers. Two of the bishops and numbers of the lower
ecclesiastics were obedient unto the faith. Thus scores and hundred of
souls were converted, congregations were fathered, the nucleus of
churches formed, and a general enlightening and elevating influence of
unwonted power went forth among the masses of the people.

Revivals are the great hope of our work among the
Nestorians. Thus far, no year has passed without some portion of the
field being blessed. Some of these times of refreshing the last few
years, have been of thrilling and pervading influence, reaching large
congregations, for weeks at a time. In scores of villages, the one
great need is the power of the Holy Spirit. At times it has seemed as
if a cloud of blessing was ready to burst over our whole field, and
convert thousands of hearts, who are already more or less fully
convinced.

The opportunities for the most earnest and direct
labor in congregations, in families, and in groups of inquirers, is
limited only by the willingness of spirit and strength of body of the
missionaries and native brethren. Will not Christians pray that we may
be aided from on High to meet these great responsibilities, and that
God will grant His Spirit for the great ingathering yet to come?

3.Organizing and training. To come down from the very
presence of Jesus on the mount - the glory and rapture of revivals - to
the matter-of-fact duty of training the weak and tempted converts if
often a very hard duty. It is an important part of the missionary work
that follows the conversion of any considerable number. To develop a
spirit of manliness and self-respect among a people long crushed by
civil and religious oppression, to bring them to a cheerful support of
the Gospel, in their great poverty and covetousness, to teach them to
witness for Christ amid manifold temptations, to foster true
independence, and yet guard against license, extravagances and errors -
in short, to plant apostolic churches, and to set their members to work
for Christ and souls, and to bind these churches into proper relation
and union with each other, is the problem and ultimate aim.

Otherwise, as a permanent influence, the work is a
failure. The revivals brought some hundreds of converts thus to be
trained and organized under rather difficult circumstances. There was
an intolerant government, an old church, and a people of much innate
weakness and character. The training began something as Wesley's
classes in England, with no intention of disturbing the old
establishment. The converts were invited to join with the missionaries
in their communion, and the missionaries examined the candidates, and
exercised needed discipline.

As the number of communicants became too large for a
single gathering, it was divided, and after a time the native ordained
preachers assumed the fuller duties of pastors, and took part in the
ordinances and discipline. By this process of training and growth, the
time came at last for organizing fully the local churches, and giving
the control of their own affairs into their own hands.

A few such churches have been organized, with their
pastors, and elders, and deacons, they assuming among their duties to
support the Gospel, and the Mission giving them grants in aid to
supplement their own efforts. Several other congregations have
sufficient numbers and strength very soon to follow. They must take up
the burdens, set out from our patronage, and show completed missionary
work.

In a larger number of congregations, the work of
self-support is begun; but they need to grow in ability and activity,
before they can assume full responsibilities as churches. The immediate
and pressing work is to carry these forward, till, by God's blessing,
they are self-supporting, self-propagating churches, and to plant new
congregations continually, through the appliances of missionary tours,
faithful colporteurs, and evangelists, educating pious young men, and
helping the followers of Christ, wherever they approve themselves as
earnest and needy.

For the proper relation of these congregations to
each other, and for their proper control and discipline, there have
grown up the ecclesiastical bodies or native Presbyteries, called
knooshyas, i.e. assemblies. These have now their "Book," with
confession of faith, rules of discipline, and guidance in ordination,
ordinances, pastoral and church work, etc.

There are four such local assemblies working
efficiently, and promising well for the future. They sometimes meet
together in a Synod. The position of the missionary in these bodies is
that of a working member except in voting. He thus has a post of
greater moral influence, and the native members feel a better
responsibility than if he cast his vote.

The aim and hope in the early years of the Mission,
was to revive the old church. But experience has shown this impossible.
The old church is a fossil. It is the grave of piety and Christian
effort. It never can be reformed. Hence, for our Christians to live at
all, they have been compelled to leave it.

In part, they have been driven out, in part they have
left it; and now the separation is complete. Yet the intolerance of the
government, and the peculiar relations of the converted ecclesiastics,
and laymen too, and the strong desire to retain influence with the
whole people have rendered the process a slow and cautious one, and
much charity and patience essential to true success.

4. Expansion. And now, who can doubt God's design in
preserving the Old Nestorian Church? How different would have been the
prospect, if the Nestorians had been utterly exterminated.

By them an entrance has been gained into the very
heart of Mohammedanism, and among them a living Church has been
planted, and in some measure inspired with the lofty purpose of
conquering the Far East for Christ. The results thus far are chiefly
among the Persian wing of the Nestorians.

But their brethren of the mountains are every year
more accessible, and some of our best outpost and most sterling
Christians are among the mountaineers. Especially in the far western
district of Bootan, we have seen, in the last four or five years, one
whole village evangelized, and many more asking for the Gospel. Among
the 40,000 or 50,000 nominally papists on the plains of the Tigris, the
way is opening for great labors. The Council of the Vatican has thrown
them into open dissent, and greater results await the missionary then
Layard achieved in exhuming the buried remains of ancient Nineveh.

Then, as a direct result of the seed sown, the
Providential call is urgent for embracing at once within our efforts
the Armenians and Mussulman sects of Northern and Central Persia. There
is the city of Tabreez of 150,000 souls, with only a single Nestorian
preacher, and the harvest ripe and perishing about him.

There is Hamadan, of 50,000 and more pressing
demands, equally destitute. The next twenty years are to be missionary
years in Persia of greater toil and greater success than anything we
have seen in the past. The statistics of our work for the past year
show, that in the district of Oroomiah, the reformation has so far
advanced, that in 23 of the villages the old churches are occupied by
evangelical congregations a portion or the whole of the year, and but
few of the villages refuse to open their ancestral places of worship to
the Gospel. It is believed that, in many villages, over half the
population is reached yearly by preaching and visitation; and in the
whole field, the number of persons brought under the immediate
influence of the Gospel, in its various agencies, reaches from 12,000
to 15,000.

But what are these to the multitudes remaining? The
population in our mission field, as bounded by the lines of our touring
and outposts, is estimated something as follows:

Syriac speaking -----near 150,000

Armenians 60,000

Jews 50,000

Yesidees 15,000

Persian Sectaries 500,000

Sheah Mussulmans 2,500,000

Sunnee 1,500,000

Total 4,775,000

This population is dependent entirely on our agency
for a knowledge of the Gospel. Not an agent of any other society than
ours is in the field. This field has been explored, and a great
preparatory work done.

I have personally, within the last eighteen months,
traveled over it nearly from end to end; and I speak the words of deep
conviction in saying, that expansion in our work is imperative. Events
are hastening, and the conflict with the false religions of Persia is
deepening every month.

The work already begun, and yet more to advance,
among the Nestorians and Armenians, furnishes us the prop on which to
rest the Gospel lever for overturning the whole system of the false
prophet. The long end of this lever is in the hands of the Christians
of America--it is intrusted to the Presbyterian Church. Will they hold
on, and bear down, praying, giving from their ample resources, sending
their sons and daughters, till the consummation is reached and Persia
is converted to Christ?

February 24, 1997

A CENTURY OF MISSION WORK IN IRAN (PERSIA) 1834-1934

REPORT OF THE BOARDS--PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH USA

A CHRONICLE OF MISSION WORK IN PERSIA

The name earliest associated with Protestant
missions in Persia is that of Henry Martyn, who came from India to
Shirz in 1811. Thus his visit does not fall within the century of our
chronicle, but to every missionary in Persia in all these years his
name has meant inspiration.

Martyn was in Shiraz only about ten months but
toiling amid heat and dust in weakness of body and with many enemies
about him, he completed his Persian translation of the Psalms, begun in
India. A few months later he died alone at Tokat in Turkey on his way
home.

Then twenty years after Henry Martyn's death, the
American Board, after a preliminary visit to Urumia by two of its
missionaries from Turkey, decided to establish a new mission to the
Nestorians. Just as the first missionaries for this work were reaching
the field in 1834, the American Board also sent out the Rev. J.
L. Merrick as a missionary to the Mohammedans of Persia. He reached
Tabriz in October 1835. The following year he made an extensive
tour of Persia reporting to the Board that under existing conditions, a
direct mission to the Mohammedans was premature. An evangelical church
later developed and the first conference of the Assyrian Evangelical
Church of Urumia met in 1871.

By 1914 missionary work in Urumia
represented a magnificent achievement. It had influenced the whole
Christian population of the Urumia plain and touched many of the
mountain people. The church was strong and able leaders were abundant.
Then almost immediately the tide of war flowed back and forth across
the Urumia area and five years later the missionaries had been deported
and several of them had died, all buildings were destroyed or wrecked,
the Assyrian population had been killed or widely dispersed and the
church was apparently ruined. These and later years were years of
persecution, massacres, pestilence, famine, deportations, flights,
death and destruction.

By 1922, exiles began to creep back to Urumia
and in the following years a brave effort was made by missionaries and
Assyrian Christians to re-establish the church and mission work. New
schools, hospitals and missionary homes were built with better
equipment than before the war. The renewed work was carried on by some
of the pre-war staff and a number of new recruits, 18 in all.

There were many difficulties but fine progress was
being made when the Persian government decided in 1933, largely
for military reasons that it was no longer wise for

American missionaries to reside in Urumia, now called
Rezaieh.

The government bought all the missionary property and
offered to cooperate in founding new stations elsewhere. The last
missionaries left the city in July 1934, most of them
transferred to other existing stations. The evangelical church, still
weak from the terrible experiences of the World War (I) and with a
scattered membership of only about one thousand, was left to carry on
with God's help, the Christian enterprise of a century.

URUMIA 1910-1920

.

The decade of 1910-1920 reflects the strain
and stress of the Great War. The entire Christian population of the
Urumia district fled before the invading Turks in July 1918.

Decimated by gunfire, famine and plague they finally
reached Hamadan, Kermanshah and Baghdad. The arrogant Russian church
with all its numbers and political support had already collapsed with
the revolution in Russia and now was totally obliterated. Like a meteor
in the sky, it had shot forth in brilliant glory and in exactly 20
years had passed into utter oblivion. The Persian section of the old
Nestorian church, which had disappeared with the coming of the Russians
in 1898, now reappeared but its ministry was sadly depleted.

The Evangelical Church also suffered tremendous
losses. Its numerous leadership, both clerical and lay, was of
unusually high caliber, a number of its men having received college and
seminary training in America. The majority of these were lost either by
death or by their emigration to America. Yet the Evangelical Church was
better able to sustain these great losses than were the other churches,
for its membership in general was well educated and was able to
maintain its religious life both individually and in groups.

Gradually after 1920, as the government
expelled the Turks and established safety west of Lake Urumia, the
refugees returned. The Christians found their homes, church and schools
in ruins and patiently set about rebuilding them.

Christians who had gone on to America during the war
now sent back money for this work of reconstruction and gradually 16
churches and 6 manses were rebuilt. Two of the former thirty ordained
ministers returned and a Nestorian pastor now turned to the Evangelical
Church and brought most of his congregation with him.

There were also a few un-ordained preachers and a
larger number of elders, deacons and deaconesses. All these leaders
ministered generously to the entire Christian community and won the
admiration of members of all denominations. Hundreds of Nestorians
turned eagerly to the Evangelical Church for instruction and
inspiration. Leaders' conferences, enrolling nearly a hundred and
lasting for a week, were conducted by the Mission and did much to
revive and strengthen the church in this period of reconstruction.

In other parts of Persia also, the churches felt the
strain of war times. In Tabriz most of the missionaries were forced to
leave and those who remained were put in jail by the Turks.
Nevertheless, the church carried on courageously many of its members
spending themselves freely in the service of the ten thousand refugees
who had come to Tabriz from all parts of Azerbaijan and the Caucasus.
In Hamadan, Teheran and South Persia also, the church was faced with
famine problems and suffered and served accordingly.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
IN THE U.S.A. 1917

REPORTS OF THE BOARDS

URMIA STATION (WEST PERSIAN MISSION)

1915

Fiske Seminary, Syrian Department. Total enrollment
boarders 58; day pupils 51, total 109. Recently we had the pleasure of
accepting a 200 toman gift, the proceeds of which are to be used as a
scholarship for some worthy girl. It comes from one of the leading
native physicians, Dr. Jesse Yonan, and is given in memory of his wife.

1917

The new year began with fear and trembling, no
one knowing when it would be necessary to pack and take the road again
in flight from the Turks. Three times during the winter, the women sat
up at night baking bread for an early start in the morning. A few
church buildings were re-roofed, some others were refitted with doors
and windows and where that was not possible, the congregations were
gathered where they could be gotten together anywhere in the village.

Up the River

In the whole of the Barandoos River district
we had but one place of worship left out of nine and one worker left
out of six. This district was the most completely destroyed. Kasha
(minister) David of Ardishai has served the whole river, baptizing,
marrying, burying, giving the sacrament and preaching.

Dr. Packard reports: the plight of the hospital a
year ago was a sad one. The assistant physician and druggist had gone
with their people. All the medical students had fled. The cook, washer
woman and cleaners, as well as all of the caretakers, both men and
women, save for one man and one woman were gone as were also household
servants. There was not a single physician left in the city. All had
fled.

1918

Two years ago we wondered if our work would ever
again assume normal proportions. The missionaries were, with few
exceptions, convalescing from typhoid or typhus; the schools, the
press, and the city church had been closed because of the crowds of
refugees. The hospital had been submerged with sick; the villages were
in ruins, and the country was in a state of anarchy.

* * * * * * * * * *

Excerpts from THE PRESBYTERIAN, in house
organ of The Presbyterian Church

From the library of the Princeton Theological
Seminary, Princeton, N. J.

January 15, 1913

The Turks-Balkan Question

The conference between the Eastern Contestants has
come to a standstill. The Allies while awaiting a proposal from the
Turks have held an informal conference among themselves and agreed on
three propositions substantially as follows:

1. If the proposal of the Turks was arrogant, they
would close the conference and continue hostilities,

2. If the proposal was courteous but the terms
unacceptable, they would suspend the conference,

3. If the proposal of the Turks was courteous in form
and satisfactory in terms they would meet in an agreement after
required yielding on some minor details.

The Turks made the proposal which was courteous in
form and the terms retained the Aegean Islands and Andrianople to Turks
and yielded Crete to the Greeks and all west of Andrianople to the
Balkan allies.

This came under number two and so the conference was
suspended.

The Powers of Europe are now urging Turkey to accede
to the terms of the Allies and the matter rests at this writing.(The
Powers: Germany and Austria-Hungary)

January 22, 1913

The Balkans

The Turks have failed to meet the ultimate proposal
of the allies. Negotiations have been indefinitely suspended. The
Powers, through their ambassadors, have prepared a note for the Porte
(Turkish governing group) commenting that the Turks would have to
accept the conditions of the allies as the fortunes of war. All the
governments of Europe have endorsed the ambassador's note to save
Germany. The allies are criticizing this nation for causing delay when,
as the note is presented to the Porte if the concessions proposed are
not granted, the allies will again take up arms and the war will go on.

February 28, 1918

Dies to Save Others

Our Board of Foreign Missions has just received word
from East Persia of the death of the Rev. C. A. Douglass of typhoid
fever due to terrible famine conditions, which the missionaries are
striving to relieve.

A message from the New York Committee on Armenian and
Syrian Relief says "We can never replace men like Mr. Douglass, nor can
we, in the U.S. ever make a sacrifice, financial or otherwise
commensurate with what these missionaries and other relief distributors
are making in Asia.

March 18, 1918

Women Spies

An alleged Turkish female spy, moving under the name
of Madame Despina Storch, was arrested at the Biltmore Hotel, New York
on March 13. She has two other female companions, supposed to be French
women. They are young. The Turk supposed to be 23 years of age, having
been married to a Frenchman by the name of Storch.

They had certain male companions, bearing the title
of Count or Baron. The Turk passed under various names in various
cities. She is said to be beautiful save for her Turkish nose and she
sought and won the attentions of prominent men, even army officials,
from whom she sought in every way to obtain information.

She was well supplied with money and after being
trailed for three months, she is to be deported to France with her
companions where they will doubtless receive the due reward of her
deeds.

This Turk with her companions of various times has
been carrying on her schemes since 1912.

April 4, 1918

That Chaldean Fake

A band of fake Chaldean priests have been arrested in
New York City thereby uncovering an extensive fraud. Among their
victims have been numbers of high church officials and even Chiefs of
Police.

Thirty-five of these priests have been deported to
Kurdistan and Persia. Others are still under arrest awaiting
deportation and when they sail it will be with from 5,000 to 15,000
dollars per man sewed into canvas jackets. This fraud has been carried
on all over the world. It centered in the U.S., with headquarters in
New York.

The scheme professed to be collecting money for
churches operating orphanages in Kurdistan. They presented credentials
with the forged signatures of Chaldeans arch-bishops with official
looking seals made in America. The scheme was brought to the attention
of the authorities by a young Chaldean John de Pasha.

The Chaldean in this country was anxious for the
exposure of this fraud for the protection of the good name of their
country.

May 30, 1918

The Fame of the American Missionary

A newspaperman, recently returned from a
world-girding trip, was a guest of a company of men in an American City.

He told a marvelous story of war and revolution from
Peking to Petrograd. But nothing touched the heart so much as the
account of the misery of the Armenian and Assyrian and the relief work
carried on by the American missionaries and American money.

He paid a glowing tribute to these missionaries.

He said their names are written on no roll of fame;
they wear no khaki; and will win no medals but they are worshipped by
the grateful remnant of the race to which these are the sole bit of
evidence that there is a God above who cares and whose Son once came
into the world to tell men in the Syriac tongue which is the mother
language of these people that all men are brothers.

America is the name conjured within all these wasted
lands. These people never speak of this Republic as the land of the
almighty dollar, but as the people with the kindly heart.

ADDENDUM

Events leading to World War I:

1912-1913: The First Balkan War

Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia are at war
with Turkey. The war ends with the Treaty of London

May 30, 1913

The Treaty of London is signed ending the first
Balkan War. Turkey abandons claims to Crete; status of Albania and
Aegean Islands is undetermined.

June 28, 1914

Assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne,
Archduke Francis Ferdinand and his wife, the Dutchess of Hohenberg at
Sarajevo, Bosnia, by agents of a secret terrorist organization.

July 28, 1914

World War I begins, and the story of the tragedy of
the Assyrians begins.

2/12/1997

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
IN THE U.S.A., REPORTS OF THE BOARDS 1899-1917

1899-Church Work in the Urmia Plain

There have been 250 additions to our churches, the
largest number being in Gulpashan, Heiderlui, Dustellan and Tabetan.
The first is one of our largest churches, which has grown steadily and
rapidly during the past two years.

Last year's statistics showing a total membership of
2,232, a net gain of 137 in spite of losses to the Russian movement.

The contributions were about 80 cents per member.

Relief Work: The money at the disposal of the mission
for relief of the homeless and starving refugees from Turkey has been
only one-third of those received the preceding year while the need
among the villages of the Urmia Plain and in Tergawar has continued to
grow.

2,000 returned to Persia last summer but the
winter of 1898-99 has borne a special severity upon those who remained.
Many have lived on roots and food of animals and many have starved for
the want of bread for the body and the Bread which is Christ's
Flesh.....

The Rev. Dr. William A. Shedd--1918

Two years ago we wondered if our work would ever
again assume normal proportions. The missionaries were convalescing
from typhoid or typhus; the schools, the press and the city church has
been closed because of the crowds of refugees. The hospital has been
submerged with the sick; the villages were in ruins, and the country
was in a state of anarchy.

* * * * * * * * *

The Rev. William A. Shedd, Missionary of the Board in
West Persia from 1892 to 1918.

Dr. Shedd was born in Urumia in 1865. His father and
mother were missionaries and went to Persia in 1859. Dr. Shedd was
ordained in June 1892 and sailed for Persia in the fall of that year.
Dr. Shedd died of cholera on August 7, 1918 as he was accompanying a
party of refugees from Urumia to Hamadan.

1919

The last four years of the War with the alternating
armies of Russians and Turks sweeping over north western Persia with
famine, misgovernment, and Kurdish outrage; disease and pestilence has
borne down on the inoffensive Syrian people with a weight which
scarcely any of the belligerent nations had to bear.

During the five months of the Turkish occupation in
1915 and during the times of disorder culminating in the successful
struggle of the Christians for existence against the Moslem elements of
the City in January and February and then in the utter flight of the
entire Christian population upon the collapse of the Persian and
Armenian resistance and the re-invasion of the Turks, Dr. Shedd has
been a people as a great rock in the midst of a stormy sea.

Dr. Shedd left Urumia on July 31, 1918 as a rear
guard to the 80,000 Christians fleeing southward over the mountains to
Hamadan, without food, or transportation, through a barren country
without grain or fuel or roads, leaving a trail of death and disease
behind them. Those who came last died by the thousands.

Dr. Shedd was following his flock to shield and
protect it when at Sainkala, a little village north of the Urumia Lake,
he fell victim to Cholera and died on August 7, 1918.

Urumia was evacuated by missionaries in October 1918.

DURING THE MONTHS FROM MAY 30 TO AUGUST 18 (1918)
CABLES REACHED THE PRESBYTERIAN BOARD THROUGH THE STATE DEPARTMENT

Tabriz, Persia May 30, 1918: Arrival of Kurds.
Consuls, including USA and all Europeans leaving tonight. All the
Tabriz missionary ladies and children are going to Kazuin and probably
to Hamadan...Urumia missionaries safe and all, with the exception of
doctors and their wives, will accompany native Christians if forced to
flee.

The Associated Press reported Tabriz had been
attacked by the Turks on July 14 and the Presbyterian Hospital had been
looted and the American consulate sacked.

Rev. W. A. Shedd died of Cholera at Sainkala, August
7. Nearly all the Assyrian and Armenian refugees from Urumia to the
number of 80,000 had passed Sainkala by the 5th .

State Department, Dated August 18, 1918

40,000 Christian refugees from Urumia have passed
Bijar en route to Hamadan and their followed 40,000 more. Epidemics and
hunger cause many deaths. Turks have given up their pursuit but rear
parties have been robbed of everything.

* ** * * * * * *

TABRIZ: On the 10th of June about 10:30 a.m. the long
caravan with over 14 nationalities left Tabriz. There were about 20
large furghoons, each drawn by 4 horses and resembling the old Prairie
schooners, 16 doshgas or Russian carts drawn each by 1 horse, several
vehicles of a non-descript nature, a number of men on horse back, more
on donkeys, 20 or more loaded camels, 10 or more load horses, an escort
of 110 Persian Cossacks officered by a Russian, and including 40
mounted men and 2 machine guns.

20 days later, we arrived at Kazvin.

The Turks occupied the English and American
consulates and all of our hospital property in Tabriz. Then there was
begun a systematic looting of our hospital property; the Pullman home
and the house formerly occupied by Dr. Lamme.

2/21/97

* * * * * * * * * *

AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONARIES AT URMIA
DURING THE GREAT WAR

MICHAEL P. ZIRINSKY

HISTORY DEPARTMENT

BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY

BOISE, IDAHO 83725-1925

USA

INTERNATIONAL ROUND TABLE ON

"PERSIA AND THE GREAT WAR"

Sponsored by

L'Institut Francais de Recherche en Iran

and

The Institute for Political and International Studies

Tehran, 2-3 March 1997

AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN MISSIONARIES

AT URMIA DURING THE GREAT WAR

Michael Zirinsky

Introduction

This paper focuses primarily on American
Presbyterian missionary activity at Urmia, western Azerbaijan, during
the years 1914-1919. Although American missionaries began as neutrals
in the Great War, with good intentions toward all, they became
embroiled in wartime public events and inadvertently roiled an already
turbulent situation. The subject is fascinating in part because it
marks the interaction of several separate histories which normally are
considered only in isolation from each other. These topics include
American social history, Christian Church history, and the history of
twentieth century international politics, as well as modern Iranian
history.

American Presbyterian Church archives, the most
important source for this paper, detail the domestic and international
history of Iran during the Great War because Presbyterian missionaries
were interested observers and meticulous record keepers. At regular
intervals, they were required by their Board of Foreign Missions in New
York to report on local conditions and on their own activities. In
addition, they wrote regular, formal letters to the churches and
individuals in America who sponsored them and paid their expenses and
salaries. The Presbyterian archive also contains collections of private
papers (letters, diaries, photograph collections and other personal
materials), which have been made a part of the historical record by
retired missionaries and their families. All of these records are
carefully preserved by a Church which understands the study of history
to be one way human beings can try to know the will of God on earth.

From my perspective as a secular historian,
Presbyterian missionaries at Urmia seem to have had more worldly than
religious impact. They worked in the world, as doctors and nurses, as
educators, even as agronomists. They themselves called democratic
self-government and patriotic love of community. Indeed, the government
of the Presbyterian Church, which emphasizes democratic local control
and election of higher authorities by individual self-governing
congregations, is one of the Puritan origins of the secular American
system of representative government.

Presbyterian missionaries in Iran consequently helped
to stimulate the development of modern national feeling among Iranians,
including several minority groups. An intriguing example of this is the
brief career of Howard Baskerville, a young short-term teacher at the
American Mission Boys's School in Tabriz. During the Constitutional
Revolution Baskerville became so caught up in Iran's struggle for
freedom that in 1908 he resigned from the Mission to join his students
in the Democratic armed forces. He died for Iranian Constitutional
liberty. Another example is the career of Ahmad Kasravi, arguably the
first modern Iranian historian, both in his use of primary sources to
recount the past "as it actually occurred" and in his Iranian secular
nationalism. In this regard it is important to recall that Kasravi had
been a teacher in the Mission's Tabriz Boys' School, where he also
studied English.

Despite their beneficent and peaceful intentions,
however, during the war their actions made worse existing conflicts
among communities which were religion-based. They became involved in a
struggle which came to take on some of the aspects of a Crusade against
a Jihad. The Great War in Iran has been obscure in written history. In
western Europe its dates are clear enough, from 28 July 1914 to 11
November 1918, but in Iran they are less precise. It began with Ottoman
Turkish attacks on established Russian positions in Iranian Azerbaijan
in October 1914. After years of chaos, the war ended only with the
reestablishment of order by Reza Khan sometime after his February 1921
coup d'etat. This new order was signaled most clearly by Reza's
deposition of the Qajar dynasty in 1925.

Although these Iranian events have largely been
ignored by western historians of the Great War, they were of vital
importance to Iran itself. Russian, Ottoman, British, French, and
German military forces ranged freely over the country despite Iran's
nominal neutrality. The war destabilized Iran's already weak political
structure and led directly to the establishment in 1926 of the Pahlavi
dynasty, which dominated the country until 1978. Destabilization took
the form of the rise of minority autonomist movements, tribal,
confessional, and national - the Kurds and the Assyrians for example.

One of the most powerful aspects of destabilization
was the high mortality imposed by the war and resulting struggles for
power among various groups in Iran. In addition to people killed by
violence, the Great War interrupted food and energy supplies, ripped
people from their homes, and spread epidemic diseases. Perhaps
one-quarter of the population died of starvation, exposure, dysentery,
typhus, typhoid fever, cholera, smallpox, malaria or influenza. All of
Iran was affected by the war, but mortality was highest in the north,
worst of all in western Azerbaijan, site of intense American
Presbyterian missionary activity.

The American Presbyterian Mission

American Protestant missionaries first came to Urmia
in 1834 to work with Assyrian Christians. As elsewhere, these
missionaries were responding to early nineteenth century evangelical
revival, which called on American Protestants to preach the Gospel to
all humankind. At first the work was supervised by the Congregational,
Boston-based American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. In
1871 the mission was transferred to the New York-based Presbyterian
Board which sought to minister to Jews and Muslims as well as Armenian
and Assyrian Christians. The Presbyterian Board also expanded the
Mission throughout northern Iran: stations opened at Tehran in 1872,
Tabriz in 1873, Hamadan in 1880, Rasht and Qazvin in 1906, Kermanshah
in 1910 and Mashad in 1911. In 1883 the Presbyterian Board reorganized
the Iranian field into two separate missions. Urmia and Tabriz
constituted the 'West Persia Mission" and the remaining Iranian
stations were called the "East Persia Mission". The two jurisdictions
were not reunited until 1931.

After half a century of American Protestant
missionary work in Iran, the growing numbers of missionaries created
need for the United States to establish diplomatic relations with Iran.
S.G.W. Benjamin, himself the child of Protestant missionaries in the
Ottoman Empire, arrived in Tehran as the first US Minister in June
1883. US consulates were established at Tehran and Tabriz, but
elsewhere American missionaries continued to depend on Great Britain
for consular assistance. Until the expansion of US activity

following the Second World War, the Presbyterian
Mission remained the most important American interest in Iran.

Growth brought the American Mission into contact with
many European missionary societies active in Iran. These included a
large French Catholic Mission (the Congregation of the Mission,
popularly known as the Lazarists, established first in Urmia in 1839),
and several English groups, notably the Church Missionary Society (CMS,
established at Isfahan in 1875, with other stations later created at
Kerman 1897), Yazd (1898) and Shiraz (1900) and the Archbishop of
Canterbury's Assyrian Mission (AAM, established at Urmia, 1884-1914).
There were also a small German Lutheran Orient Mission (established at
Sauj Bulaq (Mahabad) in 1905 and transferred to American Lutheran
control in 1911) and a highly political Russian Orthodox Mission.

In order to avoid the twin dangers of unwanted
duplication of missionary efforts and conflict between societies with
similar aims, the Presbyterians negotiated a comity agreement with the
English Church Missionary Society in 1895. The boundary between the two
missions would be

a line drawn from Khorramabad, Luristan, to Kashan,
thence along parallel

34 degrees N. to the Afghan frontier. Khorramabad to
remain in the American

sphere of influence and Kashan in that of the Church
Mission Society.

The phrasing of this agreement as well as the
division itself foreshadowed the 1907 Anglo-Russian political partition
of Iran.

This agreement and a similar one with the Lutheran
Orient Mission aside, American Presbyterian relations with other
Christian missions in Iran remained in a state of rivalry until the
outbreak of war in 1914. Despite the American Mission's original
intention to improve the indigenous Assyrian Church, the development of
an "American Church" as a schismatic off-shoot of the Assyrian "Old
Church" provided a challenge to other missionary groups. The American
Mission was seen as wealthy and powerful by its French and British
rivals, who both marveled at American ability to build imposing schools
and hospitals and criticized American work as tantamount to buying
adherents.

The Lazarist mission was militantly Catholic; in the
context of French history, this often meant hostility to Protestantism
and secularism, and French Catholic rivalry with American Protestants
is amply represented in the Lazarist archives. However, even after the
formal separation of the French State from the Catholic Church in the
early twentieth century, the French government saw the Catholic mission
as an important French influence in Iran.

The Archbishop of Canterbury's Mission ostentatiously
distanced itself from other missionary enterprises, denying any
expansionist ambition and declaring a purpose to revive the Old Church
"from within," i.e. by education. In the 1888 words of Archbishop E. W.
Benson, the mission "will not proselytize - not baptize, communicate,
or ordain any member of that Church into the Church of England." This
position brought the English mission into conflict with American,
French and Russian missions, which sought to build Presbyterian,
Catholic and Orthodox Churches among the Assyrians. The AAM focused its
attention on the hierarchy of the Assyrian Church, trying to assure a
good, English-style of education to the priests and bishops. When the
Iranian Assyrian Church nevertheless joined the Russian Orthodox
communion following Russian military occupation of western Azerbaijan,
the AAM withdrew from Iran in 1914. The impression is left, even more
than with CMS in the south, that there was close connection between
this mission and the British government.

American Presbyterians shared the disappointment of
the Archbishop of Canterbury's Mission at Russian success in converting
the Assyrian Church. However, the Presbyterians chose to remain at
Urmia and to work with Russian civil and military authorities, as they
had worked with Iranian authorities before the 1907 Russian occupation.
The outbreak of war in 1914 effectively ended inter-mission rivalries.
Under pressure of wartime hysteria, all Christians in Urmia came to
perceive the war as a conflict between Ottoman-led Islam and
Russian-led Christendom. Consequently American missionaries allied with
other Christian groups and saw the Russian Army, and its locally
recruited Assyrian and Armenian levies, as "our army."

Who were the American missionaries, and what did they
do? Analysis of personnel records indicates that they came from
prosperous middle class families, mostly from the northeastern United
States. They were highly educated. Two-thirds of them were females.
They tended to be assigned in families (siblings serving in the same
field, children assigned as missionaries to their parents' field, and
so forth). Most missionaries declared a vocation for the missionary
life as adolescents. Typically they stayed in Iran until retirement,
only returning to America on furlough after every seven years on the
field.

The West Persia Mission was large and wealthy. On the
eve of the war there were 21 Presbyterian missionaries at Urmia, plus
their children. In addition, there were perhaps a dozen missionaries in
Tabriz. As early as 1895 the Mission had established 117 schools in the
Urmia region, enrolling 2,410 mostly Assyrian or Armenian students. The
Mission also maintained a teaching hospital in Urmia.

The senior Presbyterian missionary at Urmia during
the Great War was the Rev. William A. Shedd, D.D. He was born at Urmia
in 1865 of missionary parents, John H. Shedd and Sarah Jane Dawes of
Ohio; he returned to Urmia as a missionary himself in 1892, after his
education at Marietta College (Ohio) and Princeton Seminary (New
Jersey). He was well connected; his first cousin, Chicago banker
Charles G. Dawes, later became Vice President of the United States.
Before the outbreak of war, Shedd acted informally as US consular agent
at Urmia, registering births and deaths, renewing passports, etc., on
behalf of US consul Gordon Paddock at Tabriz. In 1914 Paddock urged him
to accept an official commission as honorary vice consul at Urmia, but
Shedd demurred. 'Besides the work it might involve" he wrote, "an
objection to my being a regular agent here is the misunderstanding that
might arise to our political position. People here are apt to consider
missions as political agencies." The war, however, was to change
Shedd's mind.

In times of crisis, missionaries tended to drop all
normal activity and engage in "relief work." For medical workers this
was a continuation of normal work, but under much more extreme
conditions. Evangelists and educators were faced with new and
unfamiliar tasks as buyers and distributors of food, financial agents,
organizers of refugee camps, sanitation workers, and buriers of the
dead. During the Great War in Iran, crisis loomed

large. The Presbyterian Mission at Urmia rushed to
meet it.

The Great War in Iranian Azerbaijan

From the viewpoint of Urmia, the Great War in Iran
may be divided into six phases, briefly sketched below. This conflict
came to have a religious-national structure, and it took on genocidal
proportions. It came thoroughly to involve the American Presbyterian
Mission.

1. Between the Ottoman Empire's entering the war
against Russia in late October and the end of 1914, there was extensive
skirmishing between Ottoman and Russian forces along the border west of
Urmia. Much of this activity involved probing actions by irregular
Kurdish forces operating from Ottoman territory, a prelude to the
massive invasion which followed.

Russian forces in occupation of Azerbaijan since the
1907 Anglo-Russian partition of Iran, reacted to Ottoman attacks by
reinforcing their army, largely with Georgian and Armenian conscripts
from the Caucasus. They also armed Iranian Assyrians and organized them
into a military force. The newly armed Assyrians attacked Muslim
villages near Urmia, even as Russian authorities hanged Iranians
suspected of corresponding with the Turks, including members of the
ulama. Thus the quality of relations between Muslin and Christian
communities sharply declined even before the Ottomans invaded.

2. During the winter of 1914-1915, the Ottomans
launched a major offensive against the Russian Caucasus. In the final
analysis, this attack was a disaster for the Ottomans, but in the short
term they achieved local successes. Urmia fell to them on 2 January and
remained under their control until 24 May. They took Tabriz on 8
January, holding it only three weeks.

This brief Ottoman occupation of Iranian Azerbaijan
led to horrors. A large portion of the Christian population fled as
refugees to the Caucasus, along with the Russian army. Most of the
Christians who remained took refuge in the American and French mission
yards. Kurdish irregular forces preceding the Ottoman army sacked Urmia
and its villages, taking food, money, rugs, clothing and jewelry where
they found it, killing or wounding those who resisted their plundering.
American missionary sources also record extensive "massacring",
"outraging of women", and abduction of women and children to Muslin
"harems' for the purpose of forced conversions to Islam. Once the
Ottomans were firmly in occupation of Urmia, however, their officers
ended these depredations. Although the Ottomans honored Mission
sanctuaries, where 15,000 sheltered under American and 10,000 under
French protection, the first five months of 1915 were horrible. About
twenty percent of all refugees died from disease. The American Mission
alone buried 3,000 of the 15,000 people in its care.

3. From late May 1915 until 1917, Azerbaijan again
was under Russian control. The Ottomans remained on the defensive, even
as Russia disintegrated. Before its collapse, however, Russia carried a
genocidal war into eastern Anatolia, killing as many as eighty percent
of the Kurdish population. Revolution ended Russian army discipline,
and soldiers looted civilian property. By late 1917 the Russian army in
Azerbaijan virtually ceased to exist.

During this time too, perhaps as many as 50,000 armed
Assyrians from Hakkari (Jilus, led by their primate, Mar Shimoun) and
Armenians from Van descended on the Urmia plain as refugees. Because of
their wartime experiences they were wretchedly poor and bitterly
anti-Muslim. By culture they were pastoralists, and they had little
understanding of agriculture or urban life. Thus they destabilized life
in the plain, taking food without payment, pasturing animals in grain
fields before harvest, and cutting fruit trees and vines for firewood,
thereby destroying the local economy and causing famine. Also, local
Assyrians encouraged the Jilus to shift their destruction to Muslim
properties, adding to inter-communal tensions.

4. The situation in Azerbaijan grew worse as
revolution broke out in Russia and its army disintegrated. As the Rev.
Frederick N. Jessup wrote in his annual report for 1917, "the troops
feel compelled to live off the country, and (consequently) in some
places actual famine conditions prevail." As the Russian army
disintegrated and withdrew from Iran, responsibility for Allied
defensive positions on the Azerbaijan front came to fall increasingly
on Assyrian and Armenian Christian forces, originally established and
armed by Russia but now under tenuous direction by Great Britain. The
British had no significant armed forces near Urmia, however. Therefore
they sought to use the American Mission there as their agency, as
leaders of the Assyrian-Armenian Army. This stage of the war lasted
until the Urmia front collapsed, at the end of July 1918.

In February 1918 civil violence erupted among
Iranians, Assyrians and Kurds. A Muslim effort to seize control of
Urmia was suppressed by the Assyrian army. The subsequent assassination
of Mar Shimoun by Ismail Agha, Simko, chief of the Shikkak
confederation of Kurds, further bloodied the already nasty situation.
Assyrians believed that Simko had been induced to act as he did by
Iranian government officials, and in reprisal they carried out a "reign
of terror" against Muslim's. Iranian nationalist historian Ahmad
Kasravi claimed that "nearly ten thousand innocent people were
killed...." Nothing seen in missionary or diplomatic archives suggests
Kasravi exaggerated.

5. From 1 August 1918 until the signing of the Mudros
armistice at the end of October 1918, Azerbaijan remained under Ottoman
control. The presence of their army did nothing to alleviate the famine
and epidemic disease stalking the land. Missionary sources for this
time are chaotic, but the broad outlines of what occurred seem clear.

The bulk of the Assyrian and Armenian Christian
fighting force was drawn away in a bungled attempt to link up with
British forces at Sain Kala. When the Ottomans pushed into Urmia during
the night of 31 July - 1 August 1918, the vast majority of the
Christian population fled in panic, accompanied by s senior American
missionary William Shedd and his wife. Along with thousands of others,
Dr. Shedd died along the way of cholera.

Those Christians who remained at Urmia again sought
refuge in the walled mission compounds. Again the Ottomans honored US
neutrality and the American Mission was able to provide sanctuary. The
French Mission, however, fell to a crowd of looters. Six hundred people
were murdered there, and the French mission was stripped of all its
valuables.

After the worst damage was done at Urmia, the
Ottomans interned the American missionaries and took them to Tabriz.
There they were held under relatively luxurious conditions until the
war ended, when they were all released.

6. After Ottoman forces withdrew from Azerbaijan,
Iran sank further into anarchy. The British Army's North Persia Force
sought to bolster anti-Bolshevik elements in the Caucasus. It faced
Iranian opposition, notably in Gilan from Mirza Kuchik Khan's Jangalis.
In the mountains tribal forces such as Simko's Shikkak Kurds expanded
their authority. In Tehran, British officials made and unmade
governments at will. They obtained the appointment of Vosuq al-Dowleh
as Prime Minister in hope that he would support an agreement
transforming Iran into a British protectorate. In February 1919, Vosuq
sent the Cossack Brigade, under the command of Russian Colonel
Starosselsky, against the Jangalis. Britain supported this action,
carrying out "purely coercive measures to further political ends" in
support of "Starosselski's reign of terror in Gilan."

Despite the unsettled conditions at Urmia, the
American mission nonetheless sought to reestablish itself there. In
early 1919 Dr. Harry P. Packard visited twice, the second time bringing
his family and intending to stay. Soon afterwards, a riot broke out.
Although initial fighting seems to have involved an Iranian government
attack on Simko and a Kurdish reprisal attack on Urmia, Iranian rioters
attacked the American mission grounds, looting it as thoroughly as the
French mission had been stripped the summer before, murdering some 270
people. Packard and his family survived, rescued from the crowd by
Iranian government forces.

This riot was the climax of the American Mission's
experience of war in western Azerbaijan. In some ways it was the result
of growing popular Iranian perception that Americans were associated
with Assyrian and Kurdish attacks on Iranian Muslims. This riot ended
the Presbyterian presence at Urmia until 1923. It also was a prelude to
the end of the Mission at Urmia, imposed by Reza Shah in 1933.

The Presbyterian Mission During the War

Having surveyed the war from the viewpoint of Urmia,
let us now look specifically at American Presbyterian missionary
involvement during the six phases of the conflict outlined above.

1. 1914 During the opening months of the
Great War, American missionaries sought to be neutral and even-handed.
At the onset of hostilities, Germans took refuge from the Russians with
neutral Americans. As best they could, the missionaries maintained
amicable relations with Russians, Iranians, Assyrians, Armenians and
Kurds. Because these groups fought each other, however, American
neutrality became increasingly difficult to maintain. Faced with
inter-communal conflict, the Mission was forced to take sides.

As from before the war, the Rev. William Shedd,
senior American missionary at Urmia, acted unofficially as U.S.
consular agent. In this capacity he reported on political and military
conditions, knowing that US Consul Paddock in Tabriz shared his
information with British, French and Russian colleagues. While the
indigenous Christian population of Urmia panicked on hearing of Russian
withdrawal on 2 January 1915,many thousands fleeing to the Caucasus,
the American missionaries remained. They trusted in their neutrality,
gave sanctuary to fifteen thousand Christians, and tried to protect
their property.

2. January-May 1915 With the coming of the
Ottomans to Azerbaijan in January, the American Mission was plunged
into the heart of the war's darkness. At first the Mission simply
sought to alleviate distress. A vivid example of this was Dr. Harry P.
Packard's dramatic ride to the village of Goegtapa. Dr. Packard was
born in Illinois in 1874, and he graduated from high school in Pueblo,
Colorado and took degrees from Colorado College (A.B. 1898) and the
University of Denver (M.D., 1901). Before becoming a missionary at
Urmia in 1906, he served with the Colorado Militia during the Cripple
Creek mining troubles. In Hugh Muller's words, "Dr. Packard was a big
man with a big voice, and on horseback he looked like a general."
Displaying a US flag to emphasize his neutral and extra-territorial
status, Packard rescued hundreds of besieged Assyrian Christians at
Geogtapa from what he characterized as imminent massacre by invading
Kurds. Packard knew the Kurdish leaders as their physician, and he was
able to persuade them to let the Assyrians walk away from Geogtapa to
refuge in Urmia, if they would give up their arms. Equally important to
the peaceful outcome of this incident, Packard was able to persuade the
Assyrians that they would be safe under American protection at Urmia.

The American Mission made its yards at Urmia a refuge
for Assyrian and Armenian Christians who feared massacre at the hands
of the Ottoman Turks and their Kurdish allies. To make room for this
mass of people, ultimately numbering some 15,000, the Mission annexed
to its own compounds adjacent Christian properties. These properties
included the yard of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Mission, which had
been left in charge of the Rev. Y. M. Neeson, as Assyrian priest who
had taken Episcopalian holy orders in America, where he also acquired
US citizenship. Order was maintained in the mission yards by an unarmed
Assyrian police force under the command of the Rev. Hugo A. Muller, who
also was in charge of mission finances during the occupation.

To signify the neutral, extraterritorial, status of
the Mission under the Capitulations, the Presbyterians flew the Stars
and Stripes, the flag of their neutral nation. However, missionary
faith in the flag appears to have been curiously naive, as if Old Glory
were a talisman to ward off evil. As Hugo Muller wrote about this time,
"The person who has never been far away from his country cannot well
realize the emotions that steal over one at the sight of the Stars and
Stripes in a strange land. It is like a rose in a desert." The flag, he
continued, "symbolized two great causes, and united them, the cause of
Christ and the cause of America...very many of the persons who came
within the influence of this flag regarded it the symbol of Protestant
Christianity quite as much as they did (as) the symbol of America."

The mission also protected Christian property,
including the entire cash assets of the Urmia branch of the
English-owned Imperial Bank of Persia. American missionaries acquired
and doled out food and clothing for Christian refugees, using the
property deposited with them for safe-keeping to this end. They also
withstood Ottoman efforts to confiscate from them the assets of the
English Bank and to impose a war levy on them. However, they did pay
ransom for individuals held hostage by the Ottoman authorities.

In the course of the five months' occupation of Urmia
by the Ottomans, Presbyterian missionaries acted as caretakers for
15,000 Christian refugees, sheltered within their walls. They obtained
food and water from the Muslim-dominated city and countryside, and did
their best to maintain sanitation. Despite their best efforts,
approximately 3,000 people under American care died, mostly of
filth-bred epidemic diseases (dysentery, typhus, typhoid fever and
cholera). Virtually all the missionaries themselves became ill. Several
Americans died, including Dr. Shedd's wife, Louise Wilber Shedd, and
the Rev. Hugo Muller's newborn baby boy.

These experiences politicized the Mission and made it
explicitly pro-Entente. In the course of the suffering they endured and
witnessed, American missionaries came to see "pan-Islam," i.e. the
Ottomans and their allies and sympathizers, as their foe. Embittered by
their own experiences, they were more willing than in 1914 to commit
themselves to the Entente cause, which they now saw as "Christian".

3. May 1915-December 1917 During the period
of renewed Russian occupation from late May 1915 through 1917, the
American Mission worked increasingly closely with Allied military
authorities and their local, Christian clients. The Mission had always
worked well with Britain, as the historic reliance on British consular
assistance and the comity agreement with CMS demonstrate. Under
pressure of war and in the context of a common Protestant Christian
faith and language, the American Mission found it natural to work even
more closely with Great Britain and its allies.

During this period, too, the Mission came to see the
war more clearly as a crusade. They had worked intimately with the
Assyrians for 80 years, and also with the Armenians. More often than
not they tended to accept at face value the horror stories of Turkish
massacres. Perhaps more to the point, they sympathized deeply with the
suffering of the refugees from eastern Anatolia and sought to alleviate
their distress as well as that imposed by them on the peoples of the
Urmia plain.

The American Mission enthusiastically embraced the
April 1917 US entry into the war against Germany and Austria-Hungary.
Although the US did not declare war on the Ottoman Empire, missionary
cooperation with British, Russian and French officials in Azerbaijan
grew even closer. Especially as discipline began to break down in the
Russian army, the Mission became ever more closely involved with the
administration of Christian defense. The leading role in this action
was taken by the Rev. William Shedd.

4. January-July 1918 In order to protect the
community at Urmia, in January 1918 Shedd accepted an official
commission as US consul there. Many of his missionary colleagues were
dubious about thus breaking down the separation between their church
and the US government, but they accepted his advice that this was the
best course of action in a difficult time. Shedd was an active consul,
conferring regularly with Allied leaders as well as Iranian Muslims. To
the Christians defending Urmia he was a sage whose advice was always
sought - perhaps in part because of the relief funds he controlled.

One aspect of the Mission's work is that "relief"
provided by New York came as money, not as food which, thus, had to be
bought locally. American Relief consequently added inflationary
pressure to local food prices. When obtaining food became difficult for
the mission, it doled out money instead, the Mission thereby came to
subsidize men of the Assyrian and Armenian Christian fighting forces as
well as local Muslims, women, and children. Although intended for food,
some of this money may well have been spent on arms.

Shedd was quite aware of what he was doing. Writing
to the Armenian and Syrian Relief Committee in New York on 21 July
1918, Shedd claimed,

that the safety of the whole community and the
possibility of doing relief work at all depended on the defeat of the
Turkish attempt to take this place and that we were not only justified
in aiding the Syrian and Armenian military forces but were compelled to
do so. Accordingly we have done so and the amount of help given is
large amounting to forty or fifty thousand dollars. We have reason to
believe that this will be refunded by the British Military authorities,
although we have no guarantee that this will be the case. However that
may be, there was no other source from which money could be had to
supply the men who were fighting with food and we did so. The reasons
for it were the same as those that led me as honorary American Vice
Consul to abandon a position of neutrality for one of active
participation in military affairs.

Because of his unneutral action, Shedd came to be
seen by Ottomans and Iranians as a belligerent, even as leader of the
enemy, Allied, Christian army.

Shedd's second in command during this conflict was
Dr. Harry Packard, who acted as head of the armed Assyrian police.
Together with other missionaries, Packard arranged for the maintenance
of order by buying food and distributing it or money to the needy. His
police also arrested thieves and murderers and punished them, although
not frequently or harshly enough for Shedd's taste.

The American Mission clearly supported the
"Assyrian-Armenian Army" on behalf of the Allied war effort and at
explicit request of the British Army. After the war, the British
Foreign Office tried to avoid repaying funds thus expended on behalf of
Great Britain. However, on being given documentary evidence of the
assurances made by Captain Gracey (who had come to Urmia during the
siege as an official representative of the Allied high command in the
Caucasus), the British government paid. As one British Legation
official in Tehran put it in a June 1919 memorandum to British Minister
Sir Percy Cox, "Capt. Gracey doubtless talked rather big in the hopes
of putting heart into the Syrians and holding up this front against the
Turks. (Consequently). We have met all the orders issued by the late
Dr. Shedd which have been presented to us and a very large number of
Assyrian refugees are being maintained at Baquba, chiefly at H.M.G.'s
expense."

5. August-October 1918 During the second
Ottoman occupation of Azerbaijan, the American mission was interned and
had little opportunity to undertake war-related activity. Nevertheless,
they cared for about 450 Christians in their yard. Half of these
refugees, including almost all of the children, died in the few weeks
before the Ottomans evacuated the missionaries to Tabriz.

On 8 October, on two hours' notice and over protests
of missionaries who wished to stay, the eighteen remaining Americans
were deported from Urmia to Tabriz. The American Mission was thus
separated from its remaining proteges at Urmia. At Tabriz they were
kept in "the splendid garden of the Russian Bank people where we stayed
till our release. We were quite comfortable and could get good food. In
ten days (on 22 October) we were informed that we were free..." Ottoman
negotiations with the Allies for an armistice, signed on board H.M.S.
Agamemnon at Mudros on 30 October, already had begun.

6. 1919 Some of the worst mortality and
atrocities occurred during this period. Starvation and epidemic disease
stalked the land, and American missionaries participated in relief
efforts along with other members of the foreign community in Tabriz,
including consular and British military officials and French
missionaries. At Urmia the small remaining Assyrian population were
without American leadership, but Mrs. Judith David, an Assyrian leader
in the 'American" Church, gathered refugees in the American m mission
and organized their care.

In spring 1919, contact was established between the
American Mission at Tabriz and Assyrian refugees at Urmia. The bulk of
the surviving Assyrian community was under British supervision near
Baghdad and wanted to return to their pre-war homes as soon as
possible. Because of unsettled political conditions in the vicinity of
Urmia - this phrase also covers British indecision as to whether or not
they intended to establish an autonomous Kurdistan - British
authorities refused permission for Assyrians to return home. Iranian
government authorities also sought to keep Assyrians and perhaps their
American protectors as well, away from Urmia.

In February 1919 Dr. Packard nevertheless made a
brief inspection tour and argued it was essential for him to return to
Urmia, in order to encourage Assyrians to get on with spring planting.
In April he went to Urmia with his family. After a few weeks of
apparent peace, all hell broke loose.

On 24 May 1919 a riot destroyed the American Mission
at Urmia. Amidst a famine so severe that highwaymen were reported to be
laying in wait for travelers to cook and eat, a crowd of Iranians
overwhelmed the Mission's Kurdish guards and looted the food, gold,
guns, and other valuables stored there. The crowd hacked to death some
270 of almost 900 Christian refugees sheltered in the mission yard,
beneath the Stars and Stripes.

In retrospect, Dr. Packard's return to Urmia seems to
have made the situation worse. The Iranian population may well have
worried that his presence encouraged Assyrians to establish an
independent position in Urmia, under British protection. Also, Iranians
may well have been alarmed by Packard's hiring of Kurds as guards for
the mission, by his paying caution money to other Kurds, and by his
doling out food to needy refugees in the town. Indeed, under the
conditions of privation then existing - Iranians believed Kurds had
turned to cannibalism in order to survive - one might speculate that
doling out food to Kurds seemed likely to attract many more refugees
from the surrounding mountains to the American mission yards.

Packard was aware of the dimensions of the problem,
if not of the threat it posed. On 10 April he wrote to US Consul
Paddock that "some of the Kurds have come to visit me..(and) avow that
they are ready to do just as I command them." Packard expressed hope
that there would soon be a permanent British representative Urmia and
that Ernest Bristow, British Consul at Tabriz, would soon come "to see
some of his new subjects, as they call themselves." Packard was
especially critical of Iranian government relations with Kurdish chief
Ismail Agha, Simko. "A great farce this," he wrote, "but it is very
hell for the subjects that have to live under such a government. A few
days later, Packard wrote specifically about Iranian concerns.

The Governor complains of our helping Kurds. Moslems
of city complain also. The Moslems are afraid of the Kurds and have
been opposed by them. They say the Kurds have taken everything and they
need nothing. Neither side has any idea of fairness to the other, and
in this sea of confusion we cannot please anyone. The net result will
be dissatisfaction on all sides. The first requisite here is some
force, but the relief need is so great that we shall with greatest
difficulty compass only a small part of it.

Four days after Packard verbalized these concerns,
violence again erupted. The crisis began with a bungled effort to
assassinate Simko by means of a bomb disguised as a present to him from
the Iranian governor of Urmia. Simko escaped without harm, but his
brother was killed by the device. In retaliation, enraged Kurds
attacked Urmia on the morning of the 24th but were repulsed by the
town's defenders and a hastily assembled militia. After the Kurds were
driven off, the crowd turned on the American mission, looted its
valuables, and killed almost three hundred refugees. This riot of 24
May 1919 essentially ended the Presbyterian presence in Urmia until
after Reza Khan had reestablished central government authority.

Conclusions

Since its beginning in the 1830s, the American
Mission at Urmia had inadvertently mingled religion and secular
matters, preaching the good news of America as well as the gospel of
Christ. As Hugo Muller noted in his wartime pamphlet, to the
missionaries and their clients the Stars and Stripes symbolized and
united two great causes, "the cause of Christ and the cause of
America..." Muller claimed that many of those who saw the flag
"regarded it the symbol of Protestant Christianity quite as much as
they did (as) the symbol of America." Mixing of religion and
government, confounding Christian religion with American nationalism,
affected the Mission's work in Iran. Thus from the start, and without
being conscious it was doing so, the American mission encouraged
secular national aspirations: Assyrian, Armenian, Kurdish, and Iranian.

The Great War in the Middle East came to take on the
aspect of religious nationalism, of a Crusade in the face of a Jihad.
Despite sincere and repeated statements of beneficent intentions toward
people of all creeds, Muslims included, under the pressures of war
American Presbyterian missionaries came to see the Allied cause as
Christian. They believed pan-Islam to be their foe. On the other side,
there seems little doubt that the Ottoman government sought to use
Islam as a political weapon, proclaiming Jihad and seeking to mobilize
all Muslim's against the Russians and their allies. Iran, of course,
was at an early stage of its 20th century political development, but we
can see beneath the secular nationalism of many Iranians, such as the
pro-German Democrats, a popular nationalism which did not distinguish
between Iran and Islam. This reality is echoed in the American
missionaries' own phraseology, where "Persian" meant "Muslim" as well
as "Iranian," as in one missionary's statement about his early days in
Azerbaijan, "Before I learned Turkish, I needed a translator to talk to
the Persians."

It is not just Iranian nationalism which is involved
here;; there is a broader context. The Great War exacerbated many sorts
of modern national feeling, often with exceptionally nasty
consequences. In the Russian Empire, for example, the rise of
Bolshevism obscured the rise of many competing nationalism's. These
national conflicts now, in 1997, seem more durable than Communism
itself. Similarly, in central Europe the war encouraged the rise of
German racial nationalism, which in turn provoked the Second World War.
This in turn helped to create the Cold War. In the Middle East, the
rise of Turkish, Arabism, and Zionism all are partly consequences of
the vast upheaval of the Great War. Awful as the Great War was, in many
places it led to even worse consequences. Any discussion of Iran at
this time must take this broader context into account.

The Great War in northwestern Iran set off waves of
mass murder of civilians, carried out by ill-disciplined combatant
forces and by civilians angry at what had been done to them in the past
and fearful of what might be done in the future. Overall mortality from
starvation, exposure, and diseases as well as violence was awful. For
Assyrians and Kurds it reached the proportions of the Holocaust. 80%
died. In 1997, this might well be called "confessional cleansing."

American missionaries at Urmia were caught in the
crossfire. They believed they could not stand aside passively and let
events occur. They believed they had a moral duty to alleviate
suffering and to work for justice. Consequently, they took sides in the
struggle, on the side of right as they saw it. In this context it is
important to remember that the metaphor of the Church was often
military, as in the words of the popular hymn, "Onward Christian
Soldiers, Marching as to War, with the Cross of Jesus, Going on
Before." It is impossible to know what might have happened had American
missionaries not worked so hard for the Allies, but one wonders if it
could have been worse for the population of western Azerbaijan than
what actuality did occur. Inaction, however, was not the Presbyterian
way.

The American Mission's role in the post-armistice
chaos seems mixed. It is hard to fault their desire to feed the
starving. However, efforts by Dr. Packard to resume an American
presence at Urmia in May 1919 seem to have inadvertently contributed to
a renewed outbreak of violence. Because of his wartime activity in
Urmia on behalf of Assyrians, Packard was not well-regarded by the
Muslim population. His renewed subsidy of Kurdish refugees in May1919
and his hiring of Kurdish guards for the mission was politically naive.
In the context of a famine so severe that episodes of cannibalism were
being reported, in the minds of the "Persian" population Packard's
presence and actions at Urmia may well have seemed to foreshadow a
renewed terror. He had only beneficent and peaceful intentions, of
course, but it seems clear that his presence in Urmia helped to cause a
riot which killed 270 Christian refugees and destroyed the Presbyterian
mission.

How to assess the role of American Presbyterian
missionaries at Urmia during the Great War? Their purpose for being
there was to minister to the physical and spiritual needs of individual
human beings. They sought to preach the Good News of Christ, they
sought to bring enlightenment to those who hungered for western
knowledge, and they sought to alleviate human pain and suffering. What
is wrong with that? Given who they were, what else could they have
done? Whatever their intentions, however, what they experienced and in
some measure caused, could well be described as hell on earth.

Dr. Packard rescued William Yohannan when his
grandmother threw her body over him to protect her from the sword of
the enemy, who chased her over the courtyard and killed her with his
sword.

SECTION IV - THE MARCH TO HAMADAN AND THE TURKISH
MASSACRE

EXCERPTS ON THE MARCH TO HAMADAN, PERSIA

TAKEN FROM: THE ASSYRIAN TRAGEDY

ANNEMASSE, FEBRUARY 1934

Pages 16 and 17

Probably "The Massacre" as experienced by Mary
Yohannan and her family from Urmia to Hamadan as a result of becoming
refugees. 1917-1918

See also: Eyewitness accounts Margaret Yohannan and
Ephraim Yohannan

Basile Nikitine, Ancien Consul.

29 rue George-Sand, Paris (16 e)

January 31st, 1934

I certify that Captain Gracey, committed for Armenia
and Kurdistan, of the British Military Mission, attached to the General
Staff of the Caucasian army, came from Van at the end of the year 1917
and held in Urumia a special meeting of the Assyrian and foreign
representatives and invited the Assyrian people to take up arms. He
solemnly promised them financial and political assistance of his
Government, both during the War and after the final regulation of the
peace.

Requested by Captain Gracey, I attended the meeting
in my capacity as Russian Consul and together with the other Foreign
Representatives, I declared that if the Assyrians took up arms against
the enemies, they could count after the war on making them obtain their
independence which they would have well merited.

Sd. Basile Nikitine

16. After Capt. Gracey making his declaration, flying
officer Pennigton (British) visited the Assyrians in 1918 for the same
object, promising them finance and war material which never reached
them. The Assyrians were told that they could join the British in Sain
Qala. An Assyrian force of some 1,000 strong forced their way through,
arriving at the promised place which was evacuated by the British some
few days earlier. The Assyrians after another attempt were able to
locate the British when they all returned to Sain Qala and it was here
that the rest of the nation joined the English, since owing to lack of
ammunition they were no longer able to hold their own against
overwhelming odds. They did not reach Sain Qala, however, without more
fighting on the way.

Some ninety thousand persons, including some
Armenians, left Urumia closely followed by the enemy troops through
hostile territory, traveling day and night, with practically no food
and no water for several days. Some thousands perished in this exodus
through starvation, disease and massacre. Others were taken in
captivity. As a result of this terrible journey which lasted 25 days,
7,000 more Assyrians died after their arrival in the British camp at
Ba'qubah, despite the care taken of them.

Nevertheless, everybody, English and Assyrian,
withdrew from Sain Qala to Hamadan in southern Persia when a strong
Assyrian contingent was raised as narrated by Col. McCarthy and was
used in Kurdistan, north of Iraq, to uphold the British authority over
that area.

The families of the people were taken to Ba'qubah in
Mesopotamia (now Iraq), and no doubt they were well cared for about a
year--for which the Assyrians have never failed to express their
gratitude.

On the other hand, the British Government recognized
the services rendered by the Assyrians as it will be seen from the
following letter written by the British High Commissioner, Iraq, for
the information of the Assyrians

NOTE: Refer to eyewitness accounts of Margaret Sargis
Yohannan and Ephraim Yohannan. They were very young children but this
trip to Hamadan from Urmia is the defining moment of their lives as it
was for all the survivors of that dreadful journey.

Mary, Joan and William Yohannan had been orphaned in
Urmia when the Turks murdered their father Joseph, grandfather, and
grandmother Miriam. William (Bill) recounted how his grandmother,
Miriam, threw herself over him as the Turks slashed her to her death.
Shalem and her infant son had died earlier of the deadly. Spanish Flu

Mary was about 13, her sister was younger, and her
brother was about 6 years of age. On a very few occasions, Mary would
tell us about The Massacre and how she and others were attacked by the
Kurds or Turks and she faked death as she lay among the dead

It was a very painful subject for her and so only
heard bits and pieces.

February 1997

* * * * * * * * * *

EXCERPTS FROM THE TRAGEDY OF THE ASSYRIANS

BY. LT. COL. R. S. STAFFORD

GEORGE ALLEN UNWIN LTD.

MUSEUM STREET, LONDON

CIRCA 1933

Lt. Col. Stafford was Administrative Inspector
in Iraq for six years 1917-1923

"History, which is indeed little more than the
register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind." Gibbon,
DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, CHAPTER II.

* * * * * * * * *

Just north-east of the present-day boundary of Iraq
and within the borders of Turkey there is situated a tangled mass of
mountains, generally known as Hakkiari. Before the War (I), the tribes
who lived there were largely composed of Assyrians.

They had as neighbours Kurdish tribes as savage and
as uncivilized as themselves, while to the north in the direction of
Van the Armenian settlements began, people who if less warlike were
perhaps a little more versed in the arts of business and agriculture.
To the east runs the Persian-Turkish frontier, a series of high and
desolate peaks culminating in Mount Ararat, some seventy miles to the
north. To the west, also in broken mountainous country lived Kurdish
tribes. These Kurds, though by race and religion the opposite of the
Assyrians, were in other respects not unlike them.

Besides the Assyrian mountaineers, who were Turkish
subjects, other Assyrians lived in the plains to the west of Lake
Urmiyah. (Note: The Assyrians who lived in Lake Urmiyah (Urumia/Urmia)
are the Assyrians to whom this ethnic history is dedicated. They were
Presbyterians. These mountaineers, called "Shop-in-eye" by the Urumia
Assyrians were considered uncultured and primitive)

These mountain Assyrians acknowledged the Patriarch
Mar Shimun as their paramount chief and their ecclesiastical head.
These Assyrians are sometimes known as Nestorians after Nestorius,
Patriarch of Constantinople. Their spoken language was Syriac, directly
derived from the Aramic, the language which Christ spoke and which is
still used in their church services.

The Assyrians are convinced that they are the
descendants of the rightful heirs of the ancient Assyrian Empire, which
with its capital at Nineveh flourished during the second millennium
B.C., until 600 B.C. and which is familiar to schoolboys at any rate of
an earlier generation, from Byron's famous verse of Sennacherib.

The Assyrians of that empire were a Semitic people
who had migrated from the south of Mesopotamia after the fall of Ur
about 2000 B.C. They were the founders of the first military empire in
history, and their power was felt all over the Middle and Near East.
They spread their conquests far afield, but the heart of their country
was the Tigris plain between Nineveh and Assur, the modern Shergat.

This great empire fell in 606 B.C., when the Medes
and the Persians swept westwards and blotted out all traces of the
great capital, destroying it so utterly that when Xenophon and his Ten
Thousand passed that way less than three hundred years later, they did
not even know that they had passed one of the most famous sites of
antiquity.

But though the Assyrian Empire was thus destroyed,
there is no reason to think that the Assyrian people disappeared.
Rulers and princes would, of course, be killed or taken into captivity,
and the fighting men would be slaughtered in large numbers, but the
women and the young children would survive, and even with the admixture
of races that normally follows a successful invasion, the Assyrian
stock must have remained very largely unchanged, in the way that the
common people do remain through conquest after conquest.

They were indeed to become accustomed to a series of
conquests and invasions, as their part of the world has been one of the
great cockpits of history. The Greeks swept eastwards under Alexander,
driving out the Medes and Persians. When the Hellenic grip relaxed
after Alexander's death, the Parthians and the Persians in succession
surged westwards, but still the common people would have maintained
their stock fairly pure and probably invigorated rather than otherwise
by such admixtures as had taken place.

With the development of Roman political power in the
last century B.C., continual wars were fought between the East and
West, the boundary line moving backwards and forwards according to the
varied fortunes of the wars; wars which in the end so exhausted both
sides that they fell an easy prey to the fresh forces of Islam.

The clash between the Roman and the Orient was much
more fundamental than the conquests of Eastern peoples which had
preceded it--the Hellenic influence brought by Alexander and his
generals was too fleeting to count--for it was a clash of ideas and
civilizations as well as a clash of arms, but throughout all these wars
the tillers of the soil remained unchanged.

They suffered and at times were even actively
oppressed, but there was no persecution such as would destroy them or
even alter their characteristics. In many cases the conquerors were
found to make use of their conquered enemies, who often rose to high
though not dominant positions in the state. All this time, too, it
should be remembered the country of the Two Rivers (Tigris and
Euphrates) remained one of the richest lands in the world.

It was indeed a garden from Samarra, fifty miles
north of Baghdad to the Persian Gulf, though the tradition that a
squirrel could then journey from Samarra to the ocean without ever
having to come to the ground must have been more fanciful than
accurate. A remarkable irrigation system had gradually been evolved,
the trace of which can even now be seen in the arid and treeless plains
of Iraq. The fighting races which one after the other conquered the
country were content to leave the peasantry alone. From them they took
tribute, and from them they obtained their supplies of food.

And so it was following the advent of Islam. The
Arabs did not, any more than their predecessors, destroy the people of
the country. They granted to those who did not accept Islam a protected
though inferior status. It is clear that from the fall of Nineveh six
centuries before Christ to the time of the coming of the Mongols and
the Tartars, eighteen centuries later, the people of Northern Iraq must
have changed but little. The seventh and eighth centuries were the peak
of Christian missionary activity still farther east in Central Asia and
China and the impulse came from the Church of the East of which the
Patriarch had his residence in Baghdad.

The essential elements of the ancient stock survived.
The southerly portion of the country was laid waste by Hulagu Khan, who
sacked Baghdad in 1256 and put the whole population to the sword. One
hundred years later, the arch destroyer, Timur the Lame, swept his tide
of destruction across the Mosul plain, which was the scene of one of
the greatest massacres of his bloody record. With his death in A.D.
1404 the Mongol tide receded.

When the next conquerors, the Ottoman Turks came in,
they found the survivors in the Mosul plain an admixture of races: the
pure Arab, the pure Kurd, the Yezidi, the Jew, the Persian, the
Parthian, the Mongol as well as the ancient Assyrian. They exist with
the complication of numerous Christian sects. Nestorians, Jacobites,
Chaldeans, Roman Catholics with a few Protestants.

The Assyrians claim that their Church is the survival
of the ancient Eastern Church. When the political power of Rome fell to
pieces before the onslaughts of the barbarians from Central Europe, and
Christianity, that new religion, began to take its place as one of the
great factors in the development of European civilization, the Church
in the East began to exert political influences.

According to tradition, Christianity was introduced
into Mesopotamia in the first century A.D. by St. Adai (Thaddaeus of
the New Testament and his disciple St. Marai.) St. Thomas had already
passed farther east into India. There was a flourishing Christian
community in Babylon as early as A.D. 80 and it appears that
Christianity spread even more rapidly father north.

History is silent about the Assyrians during 1400 to
1550.

In 1886 a Mission was established by the Archbishop
of Canterbury in the mountains. Similar Missions had already been
established by Americans in the comparatively civilized towns of Mosul
and Urmiyah.

The numbers of the Assyrians in the mountains just
before the war (I) appears to have been about forty thousand. Others,
perhaps fifteen thousand or twenty thousand in number, listed in the
plains to the west of Lake Urmiyeh in Persia. To them the Orthodox
Church of Russia had sent a Mission, as had the American Presbyterians.
The Dominicans maintained a Mission there as well as in Mosul but in
Urimyah they do not appear to have made converts.

When the Great War began, an existing Anglo-Russian
Agreement meant that for all practical purposes Persia was an allied
base--British in the south and Russian in the north.

EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS OF MARCH TO
HAMADAN -- 1918

Eyewitness accounts of the massacre of Assyrians from
Urumia, Persia en-route to Hamadan, Persia where refugee
centers were established in 1918.

Margaret Sargis Yohannan, widow of William Yohannan.
William Yohannan was the younger brother of Mary Yohannan Aurahan and
Joan Yohannan Jacob, and uncle of Sylvia, Irene, Danette Aurahan and
Joseph, Jack, Peter and Julie Jacob.

In 1996 the Turkish government is still denying the
massacre of the Assyrian and Armenian populations in Urumia. In her
letter dated July 1, 1996, Margie writes as follows:

"Naturally, the Turks are going to deny the massacre
of our people. Like the Germans never knew what was going on. In our
day, there were no TV following us, or radio. My Father read about the
flight of the refugees, but didn't know we were alive until my mother
cabled him from Hamadan, the first town where churches had set up
stations to feed us and find our people.

My uncle, who had been an interpreter for the British
Army, was there ahead of us and took us in. After being on my mother's
back for I don't know how long, my aunt had to soak me off Mama's back.
She had been afraid to put me down for fear I would be trampled by
horses.

I'm disappointed that our people are forgotten. We
don't have movie producers, playwrights or other writers to keep our
plight before the public. Never a week goes by that we don't see or
hear about the Holocaust. Our people were Christian martyrs--they
wouldn't turn Mohammeden to save their necks. Believe it--I'm a
survivor, not many of us left. Please don't forget what your uncle and
mother told you about it." 7/1/96

And again in her letter of 9/23/96 when asked about
how the families emigrated to the United States:

"Most of the husbands, fathers, stayed in America
after their last visit home. They used to come to America to work and
send money home every two-three years. I think they left Urumia about
1916. My father suspected trouble, so he told my mother, if trouble
starts, take the children and leave. So when the men found out we were
alive, they started to send us money via American Express.

"Every city we came to, money was there for us. All
the families, Martha, Hannah, traveled that way. Terrorists were going
to cut Johnnie's and Eppo's throats, on their mothers' knees if they
didn't give them their money. Someone came to their aid and prevented
the killing. The men, of course, sponsored their families. I was a
minor as was my older sister, so we were in our father's citizenship
paper before we set foot on American soil.

I don't know what happened but your mother didn't
have a sponsor so your father went to France, married her and brought
her to America. Mary Careb's mother got your mother, Aunt Joanne and
Uncle to stay with her. She didn't want them in the orphanage. When
Joanne was 14, she married her to David. When Bill got old enough to go
out on his own (16) he became a chauffeur, driving Moslems to Mecca and
other jobs Your mother got a domestic job somewhere. This is as much as
I can remember.

* * * * * *

Eyewitness account of Ephraim Yohannan, son of
Absalom and Hannah Yohannan. Ephraim is the Eppo to whom Margie refers.
Hannah was the sister of Joseph Yohannan, who was the father of Mary,
Joanne and William.

Correspondence dated January 27, 1997 to Irene
Kliszus, in response to her request for information.

"Responding to your specific questions: remember that
these are my personal views although mostly I will try to be objective.
The typing as such is terrible. I was never a typist but, the scribble
is much worse

"Question: Was My Father in America? Absalom was my
father. He had been in Yonkers, New York at about 1907; worked in the
sugar factory as most Assyrians (unskilled) did. He returned to Urumia
and later married my mother.

His father was rather wealthy in that he owned many
acres of vineyards. The grapes were dried into raisins, transported by
mule to Tiflis, Georgia, USSR. There the funds

were converted to sugar and brought back on the same
mules. The sugar was frequently used as barter for other necessities.
It was about a three to four day journey to Tiflis by mule.

Question: How did we get to Hamadan? I have to go
back a bit. I must have been

about 3-1/2 years old (1918 when the
English/Turks/Muslims/Iranians) had disagreements resulting in the
massacres. In the beginning the Muslim neighbors (some) hid us until it
was inevitable that we would soon be discovered. In that situation, we
as well as they and their entire families would also be executed.

Thus, we left. Wandering, my mother and I with your
mother, Joan and Bill were together. My mother saw a soldier nearby and
we all went to him. Mother reached under her outer garments and took
out a small box (containing her jewelry) and gave it to the soldier,
even though neither could speak the language of the other.

The soldier accepted the box and we followed him. He
could have killed us on the spot, but, by God's Grace, he took us to a
temporary safe haven. Later we were put on a barge and taken across a
lake to a large refugee center. We stayed there for about a year.

The "WAR" was over, my father rejoined us. I don't
know all the details. The plan was to go to the U.S. He obtained a job
as a supervisor of snow removal on the main road crossing the mountain
passes. The British used the roads as their main source of
communications. You must understand that this area is 100% muslim
country and to a muslim, especially then as now, non-believers are a
no-no.

However, my father was able to obtain lodging among
them. He got the job because he was literate in his language and knew
Farsi and some English. He successfully recruited and had crews
clearing the snow for almost two seasons. He had saved enough to
finance our trip to the U.S.

Unfortunately, it was not enough for all. Thus, your
mom, Joan and Bill were left. A very unfortunate fact of life. Their
father had been killed early in the war as had happened to my
grandparents, etc.

We had been living in Tabriz. We traveled from Tabriz
by mule and horseback in a judre (phonetic spelling) a small frame to
hold canvas or blanket to shield the person on the animal's back from
the very cold blasts and snow on the way to Hamadan..

Then on to Basra and Bombay. The book I asked the
Davids to send you details this trip better than I am able to do. It is
priceless--the basis for my feeling that the book is a treasure.

We were in Bombay, India about two months. My father
became the leader of about 23-25 persons coming to the U.S. Most were
probably relatives of varying degrees.

We booked passage on the Canadian Fabre Ship Line to
Providence, Rhode Island, U.S.A. Our passage was steerage. We supplied
most of the meals ourselves. Because my mother was very frail and my
father's status as the dilmunge (?) the ship's personnel let us use an
unused cabin to the consternation of our fellow travelers.

We arrived around the 21st of June 1921. Because we
did not have the papers to enter we were not allowed off the ship for
about 10-14 days. Such were the restrictions them. My father somehow
obtained assistance from a SOMEONE who contacted the White House in
Washington, D.C., and soon President Warren Harding sent approval for
our group (all 23) to enter the United States legally.

Question: My Father and Mother's marriage: Your
Father was a very honorable man. He was well respected and well liked.
He was honest, hard working and temperate. I always liked him for being
self-sustaining, especially under difficult circumstances. He owned and
operated a restaurant on Third Street next door to the bakery at the
corner of Livingston Street in Elizabeth, New Jersey.

My parents knew him and appreciated they had
something in common. He was looking for a wife and they had two nieces.
So a deal was struck (you perhaps know all this) Your Father (Elisha
Aurahan) sent Mary sufficient funds to come to France where they met
with the previous understanding that if either did not wish to go
through with the tentative plan, Mary would return to Iran. It must be
assumed that both agreed since they were married and came to the U.S.

You Must Understand This is Repeated for Emphasis:
Your mom came from an academic high cultural background while your
father was industrious and hard working. Except for compelling
circumstances, they would never have met. Your father was a good--very
good provider. He usually worked for large institutions, once married,
and usually lived at his place of work and came home weekends. Your mom
had the very first refrigerator, washing machine in the Assyrian
community.

Her home was always open, chiefly to her relatives
from New Britain and elsewhere with no complaint from your father.
Shortly after WW II he was working for Phelps Dodge in the Elizabeth,
N. J. plant. The strike forced workers to get there via NYC and a boat.
Prior to his coming home weekends you kids would have a path worn out
to the tracks to greet your father. He was always very generous to you
all. Later, when Paul Byrnes and Mary (neighbors from the Bond Street
era. Eppo married Rose Byrnes) were married at the Carteret Hotel at
East Jersey Street in Elizabeth your father was the chef. At the time
when the wedding cake was ready to be cut, your father was summoned and
was given much honor on that occasion. He was very well liked, indeed.

When your father's health became a problem and he
could not work as he once did, at about that time your mother became
employed at the ladies' garment factory. Her success and his poor
health had a deleterious effect on their relationship. Your mother's
attitude was changed and his health became worse. Obviously one
consideration may be that they did not have the opportunity because of
the long periods of separations to meld together, so essential for a
successful marriage.

I always loved your mother and I also always highly
respected your father. Now, May they rest in peace.

Addendum: The above wasn't easy to put together even
though it may seem rambling. It is actually a very large part of my
life. It is so easy to look back and find the "answer", but the context
is vital and often a major player in decisions.

The concept of the word penumbra comes to mind--our
families then especially lived in a shadowy haze. We were struggling to
make life work - too busy with the finer details that many today are
more concerned about - as they should.

Thus, it is important to appreciate that the
decisions made then were not easy but we must appreciate that context.

Ephraim Yohannan, Turlock, California ----January 1997

SECTION V - MEMORIES OF LIFE IN AMERICA

BY PROGENY OF THE REFUGEES

MEMORIES-SYLVIA AURAHAN WEIDEMANN

When I was 18 years old and my sister Irene
was 16, we were going to a basketball game followed by a dance at the
Singer Recreation Center, located on Trumbull Street, in the
Elizabethport section of Elizabeth, accompanied by my friend Sophie
Gianetta.

We were fortunate to get a ride home from a
friend of Sophie's sister Angie. When we got in front of our house, we
spent a few minutes talking and thanking the driver who was in the
Navy. Suddenly, I saw my mother approaching the car in her
night-clothes. We made an immediate exit and ran upstairs. My mother
started yelling at me for taking my "baby sister" with me. She ended
her sermon by throwing a can of Fuller's Earth at me. All this took
place in the bathroom, which was a very large room.

I might add, we lived in a four room coldwater flat
on Bond Street on the third floor. The bathroom, however, was the
warmest room in the "apartment". We spent a great deal of time in there.

During the summers, we would either go to Bristol,
Connecticut or Mom's cousin Jennie (Careb) would come to our house with
her children. We children slept on the floor in the living room. Mom
and Jennie were in the bathroom on this particular occasion
chit-chatting while Jennie was taking a bath. Suddenly fire alarms and
sirens broke the silence of the night. Our neighbor, George Folmer, who
lived across the hall, came running into our house and headed for the
front porch to see what was going on outside. Mom and Jennie started
screaming. George swore up and down that he didn't see a thing and
scooted out of our house.

When I graduated from Battin High School, World War
II was still in progress. Since Battin was an all girls' school, I
didn't know any boys. I had to ask one of my school mates if her
brother would take me. He, too, was in the Navy. He was able to come
home for the evening. Unfortunately, we had to go to the prom on a bus
and return the same way. It was held at the Masonic Temple in
Elizabeth, N.J.

In November 1948, we moved to Union, N.J. Mom and Pop
bought a house on Shearer Avenue. We all had our own beds for the first
time.

I remember the day Mom brought Dede home from the
hospital. She was so red and ugly I told Mom to take her back. I was 9
years old at the time (1936). I also remember asking her where did
babies come from. My father told me to mind my own business. So much
for sex education.

A month before my nephew Ed Kliszus Jr. was born
(1954) a dear relative of ours passed away at age 33. Jennie and
another relative came for the funeral. Dede and I slept in Pop's room.
He slept downstairs on the couch. They stayed in our room. We had
single beds.

Jennie decided to take a bath. Jennie was a large
woman and she was unable to get out of the tub. Mom said we would call
Rip (Ed Kliszus Sr) to help, but Jennie refused because she was afraid
he would be frightened. Finally Dede got in the tub and managed to get
her out. She wanted to try out the bed before saying her prayers. No
sooner did she put her head on the pillow when we heard a loud noise.
One of the slats holding the mattress cracked in half. Her feet went
up--her head went down. It just so happens, Irene had a parakeet who
decided to fly upstairs and perched himself on Jennie's forehead and
started pecking.

Mom loved rearranging furniture. Unfortunately she
was limited because of space. She did manage to change the position of
our bed. (on Bond Street). Irene and I slept together. She placed the
head against the kitchen wall. The dish closet was on the other side.
Irene and I would lie on the bed facing the front of the bed and bang
the wall with our feet. You could hear the dishes rattling in all the
rooms. So ended her desire to rearrange.

I would like to describe our "apartment." It
consisted of four rooms in a square. the living room was so cold in the
winter, Mom had to put towels on the windowsill to keep the cold and
snow (yes snow) from entering. She also placed a throw rug in front of
the door.

Back in 1945, Mom's Uncle passed away. This was
Jennie's father who lived in Gary, Indiana. Mom went to the funeral
alone, but returned with three people in the middle of the night. We
were told to get out of bed so that her guests could sleep. One of the
guests was a woman. She told Mom not to move the children out of their
bed. Mom replied that it was okay, "they never sleep."

We spent the remainder of the night in the bathroom.
This was our playroom. If I remember correctly, it was the size of
Renee's (Lander) kitchen.

Mom used to send me to the library to bring back
books written by Grace Livingston Hill and Faith Baldwin. When books
were not available, she would read TRUE STORIES (romance stories) and
hide them under the bed.

Mom had purchased a blackboard that she kept in the
hall on the steps leading to the roof. We would play school and she of
course was the teacher. Mom knew a little English before she came to
American. She had been taught by the missionaries.

I guess you know that Mom's marriage had been
arranger by her Aunt Hannah (Yohannan). At the time, Mom was still in
France hoping to come to the U.S. Pop was a boarder at the home of
Benjamin and Bathseheba David. Their family consisted of Teddy, Joseph,
Bennie Jr., who everyone called "Little Bennie", Arthur, who became a
dentist then a plastic surgeon. The David's lived next door to Aunt
Hannah on South Park Street, Elizabeth. Pop owned a little luncheonette
on Third Street and was considered a good catch by Aunt Hannah. She
wrote to Mom and made the necessary arrangements. Pop went to France
and married Mom New Year's Eve 1925. They arrived in America in
February 1926. In France you had to be 21 years old to marry and Mom
had just turned 21 in November 1925.

Incidentally, Pop came to America with his brother
John (Esa) in the early part of the century, between 1912 and 1914.
Uncle Esa jointed the army in the first world war. Can't tell you too
much about him except that he was twice married. Both wives died; the
first one in a mental institution. Uncle Esa died in 1944, I think, of
a heart attack. He was working at the St. Elizabeth Hospital in
Elizabeth as a chef at the time.

MEMORIES-IRENE AURAHAN KLISZUS

An Assyrian Christmas-Circa 1937

This story is about how Christmas was celebrated at
330 Bond Street, Elizabeth, New Jersey. Cast of Characters: Mother
Mary; Father Elisha; Sister Sylvia; Little Sister DeeDee, and Yours
Truly, Irene

I observed that Christmas in non-Assyrian homes had a
whole different rhythm. Since we lived in a four-room tenement there
was no fireplace mantle on which to hang stockings. And no sugar plums
danced in anybody's head. In fact, because Christmas arrived in
December, the "parlor" was closed due to the fact that a cold-water
flat didn't have the capacity to heat all four rooms and consequently
that room was very cold. That room, however, did have a Persia carpet!

But since it was, after all, Christmas, the door was
left open for that special occasion. The Christmas/Easter dinner was
prepared--it was called "har-e-sa" and its ingredients were chicken and
some kind of milk soup or was it some kind of barley???

Of course, we did hang our cotton stockings somewhere
in the parlor and hoped for the best.

Christmas morning came and lo and behold, guess what
was in the stockings, hung by the chimney with care--we called them
"khuh-da-monnes" which today I finally know are chick-peas. An orange
and an apple were included.

Even at the age we were then, somehow it didn't seem
to be a real American Christmas. I mean, where was the stuffed goose!

I must say that in writing this in 1996 I have more
sympathy for my mother and father. They both worked very hard and
really didn't have time to read "Twas the night before Christmas" and
act accordingly. Don't forget too, American culture was alien to them
in 1937.

Anyway, I think it was that year than an Assyrian
gentleman named Elea Chalabie, who lived on and off with us, gave me a
Christmas present of a bed doll, who had no arms or body since it's
purpose was to decorate a bed. The doll had an Asian face. I sure did
love that doll. It certainly was a lot better than chick-peas.

By the way, Mr. Chalabie and scores of others such as
he, came in and out of our lives. Everybody who came through Ellis
Island seemed to find their way to our house and spent time sleeping in
our parlor until they could move on. We kids used to call the parlor
"The Dormitory." Of all these guests, Elea was the most enduring of all.

After Christmas I vaguely remember the doll
disappeared. Lo and behold I found the doll in a bottom dresser drawer
in the "front bedroom." Of course, since it was in the dresser drawer
along with Mom's beaded wedding gown, I knew it was off limits for me.
I do have memories of myself opening the drawer on secret occasions,
removing the contraband and admiring it until I felt it wasn't safe to
have it out of its hiding place. The doll went back into the drawer
until the next time it was safe to admire said doll.

Don't ask me why Mom felt she had to hide the doll.
My theory is that one should not have ready access to specific items
whose destiny was to be saved "for good." I don't remember ever asking
why the doll was kept hidden in a drawer but I do remember sneaking
peeks.

The interesting fact about this doll is that I found
out in recent years that Sylvia used to go into the drawer and have her
secret peeks. She told me that she used to pull the beads out of the
wedding dress. I never saw her in the hallowed drawer; we must have
passed like the proverbial ships in the night.

SUNDAYS AT SOUTH BEACH

Life wasn't all that grim in Elizabeth. In fact, some
of the pleasant memories were the occasions on summer Sundays we would
pile in the Yohannan delivery truck and go off to South Beach.

The Yohannan Brothers, Joseph, David and Absolom
owned a grocery store. They were a success story among the Assyrian
community. They were related to Mary Yohannan Aurahan through her
father Joseph. Absolom's wife, Hannah, was the sister of my grandfather
Joseph. It seems he was killed at the hands of Turks in The Massacre of
1918. His wife, Shalem, had died earlier at a very young age of the
Spanish Flu, which was pandemic. Her new-born son also died at the same
time.

We couldn't afford to shop in their store because
they were too expensive for us Aurahans. But sometime at Easter, David
would drop off some candies.

Anyway, back to summer Sundays. We all took off from
Greystone Presbyterian Church in the summer and were off to the beach.
Uncle Joe would pack all the food and as many of us who could fit in
the truck piled in and off we went to the ferry landing off East Jersey
Street enroute to Staten Island. The fare for a vehicle was twenty-five
cents and ten cents if you traveled as a passenger.

Later on, we would drive across the Goethals Bridge.
When we were across and in Staten Island, we followed the route to
South Beach and spent many, many lovely Sundays with the Assyrians who
came on their own. The water was polluted then, especially when the
tide was in or out, but it was fun to be there. At that time, I could
still understand the Assyrian language and if someone wanted to say
something none of us children could understand, they had to speak
Turkish.

This same group also had an annual summer picnic at a
Flemington farm. The farm was owned by an Assyrian who had married an
"American" and who had red-headed sons who would sell eggs to our
families in Elizabeth. That was about the only time I saw cows or
cucumbers growing in a garden. Flemington seemed so far away from
Elizabeth.

My fondest memories of being young involve the
camaraderie of like-minded people, Sundays at South Beach, Sunday at
the Flemington farm, Saturday nights at the rented Russian Hall with a
larger group of Assyrians from Philadelphia and Yonkers with
mid-eastern music resounding.

* * * * * * * * * *

The Early Years

Irene Aurahan

This section will be a brief background
history of my life as Irene Aurahan: 1929 to 1948.

Irene Aurahan was born March 22, 1929 in Elizabeth
General Hospital, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. My mother was Mary Yohannan
Aurahan and my father was Elisha Aurahan.

Both were immigrants from Persia, known now as Iran.
They had three daughters: Sylvia born 1927, also named Selby for my
father's mother; Irene and Danette Benita known as DeeDee, born in July
of 1936. The one thing I remember about my "little sister's" birth was
that it was on July 6, 1936 and we were in the midst of a terrible heat
wave. In later years, that July of 1936 was listed as the hottest month
and day of statistical weather reporting.

The information on my parents' emigration to America
is sketchy because neither of them talked much about it. However, I
think my father and his brother John left Persia together. My father
was about 16 at the time. Somewhere I heard references of walking
through Russia because my father did seem to speak a little Russian.
Elisha and John (Esau) were Assyrians whose family lived in Gavilin,
Iran.

Mary Yohannan lived in Gulpashin, Urumia, Persia near
Azerbaijan, which was in the north-west section of Persia, near Turkey.
My great-grandfather, Joseph Yohannan was the minister of their local
Presbyterian Church; uncles were doctors.

The Turkish Army invaded Azerbaijan Province to
massacre Armenians whom they considered infidels. This was during the
first World War, or WW I, or The Great War. The Turks also used the
Kurds to perform heinous crimes among the Armenians and Assyrians. They
captured Urumia in July 1918 and murdered Miriam, my great-grandmother,
with their bayonets. Miriam threw herself over the body of her
grandson, William, and he did escape. Mary, Joan and William were being
raised by their grandparents because their mother, Shalem, had died
earlier of the flu that was pandemic in the world. Her infant son also
died when she did. In the eyewitness account of my cousin, Ephraim
Yohannan, he said Miriam, Joseph, the minister and Joseph, the father
of Mary, Joan and William were killed by the Turks. Mary was about 13
at this time (1918) and her siblings were younger.

The story isn't too clear from this point because my
mother, Mary, only very, very rarely spoke about it. She did say though
that she feigned death in a ditch while others were stabbed to death
around her. This particular event and the years spent as refugees had a
profound influence on the whole rest of her life.

It is necessary to read the eyewitness accounts of
Margaret Yohannan and Ephraim Yohannan for their collective lives as
refugees .

Elisha, at this time, was already in the United
States. He was about 7 years older than Mary and met Absolom and Hannah
Yohannan in Elizabeth. (See Eyewitness: EPHRAIM YOHANNAN) The Assyrians
who were in the United States at this time had their own network in
Elizabeth and Hannah arranged for Elisha to meet Mary in France to see
if they wanted to marry each other. Of course, they did because I
wouldn't be writing this.

We lived in a tenement in Elizabeth, by the railroad
tracks. I remember myself as a little girl who spent a lot of time
reading books, attending Greystone Presbyterian Church, going to school
13 in Elizabeth, Grover Cleveland Junior High School and Battin High
School, all in Elizabeth. I graduated high school in 1946 at age 17 and
went to work in New York City in a Protestant Publishing House on Fifth
Avenue.

My father worked as a chef in hospitals and Mary
eventually worked in the garment industry, a euphemism for a sweat shop.

Growing up, recreation was Saturday matinees at the
Gaiety where the head usher would empty the theater after each show or
we would all sit there forever. Sometimes in order to get the admission
fare we scrounged the neighborhood for empty bottles and cashed them in
for deposit money. In the summer, there was the Dowd Pool located on
the waterfront which was free in the morning and 10 or 20 cents after
1:00. A very uneventful life. And on Sundays in the summer we would
pile in the Yohannan delivery truck and go off to South Beach in Staten
Island for the day.

In 1945 I met my future husband, your A. Father B.
Your Grandfather, C. Your Great-Grandfather......he went off to serve
in the U.S. Navy from 1946 to 1947. We were married February 5, 1949.

MEMORIES-DANETTE BENITA CHRISTENSEN

JUNE 30, 1999

The following may not be 100% accurate but it's how I
remember it. I'm sure each of us will view our childhood differently
and I'm anxious to read what Sylvia and Irene Write.

On July 6, 1936, Danette Benita Aurahan came into the
world. I don't remember anything about the day but I'm sure it must
have been a hot one. We had a cousin, Susie, who was a teacher and she
is the one who suggested my name but everyone called me "Dede." I think
at one time my hair was very long and my mother cut it. I think people
tried to discourage her from cutting it but it was cut anyway.

I remember sleeping in a crib in my parents' room and
then I graduated to a cot in the living room. I loved to play with
paper dolls and would draw clothes for them, cut them out and dress up
my dolls. I know I didn't like Santa Claus because he always brought me
clothes. When I got older I would get books and my favorites were
Grimm's Fairy Tales. I think my sisters bought them for me. If I'm not
mistaken, there was a landing outside our door (we lived on the third
floor of 330 Bond Street, Elizabeth, New Jersey), with steps leading up
to the roof. I seem to remember that the Christmas tree was on the
landing. Our family had a friend, "The Tea Man", and he lived up to his
name û he drank lots of tea in a glass. One night my mother and
father were out and either one of my sisters or perhaps both should
have been home to watch me. Well, they didn't. There was a knock at the
door and since I was alone, I was scared to death. I said "who is it?"
and there wasn't any answer. There was another knock, I repeated the
question and still no answer. I grabbed a large butcher knife, opened
the door and to my shock, it was "The Tea Man". He was as surprised to
see me with the knife in my hand as I was to see him. I never heard
what happened to my sisters, or who was supposed to stay with me that
night, and I've often wondered if they ever left me alone after that. I
can't imagine that it was much fun for them to have a baby sister to
look after.

When I was about four or five years of age, my father
had to get up about 4:00 or 5:00 am to go to work. He would make
oatmeal and coffee for breakfast and if I'm not mistaken,, he paid me 5
cents for each cup of coffee I drank with him. I think he wanted the
company and I probably wanted the money. Whatever the reason, to this
day I still drink coffee and enjoy it. If I'm not mistaken Pop worked
for Phelps Dodge as a chef. I think the company was on strike and Pop
carried a nightstick. I vaguely remember two men bringing him home from
the plant. I remember a car with a rumble seat but I'm not sure if it
was my father's car. My father was involved in an automobile accident.
A bus hit his car and I remember being scared that he would die. The
warmest room in the house was the bathroom. The hot water heater was in
there and that was the place you wanted to be in the wintertime. I
think one of us got burned on the "ishta" from the heater. The laundry
would be hung in the bathroom. Either Sylvia or Irene's bras were
hanging on the line and they had both left for the day. I used to take
one of their bras, put it on, stuff it with toilet paper, wear it to
school, and before they got home I would hang it back on the line.
Since I didn't have anything to fill the bra with I must have used lots
of paper. (Since we lived on Bond Street at this time I was younger
than 12 years old).

Even to this day I can still picture Elea and my
father sitting on the porch outside our apartment. I had a girlfriend
who lived two or three houses from our house, she and I would stand on
the sidewalk, look upstairs, see my father and Elea on the porch and
ask them for money to buy ice cream at the candy store. They would
always throw money down to me. Whenever Elea and my uncle Bill would
come to visit, they would sleep on the couch and I would sleep on the
cot in the living room. Elea would yell at my uncle Bill because he
would pull the covers off him and Elea wouldn't have any. Uncle Bill
did other things that made Elea yell at him but I won't mention them. I
will say this though: Elea would get really mad at Uncle Bill. I used
to look forward to their visits and was always sad when they left. Mom
loved her brother and was always so happy when he visited us. When Elea
was there he would ask me where I w anted to eat. My answer was always
the same: White Castle. He always knew what I wanted to order but he
asked me anyway. My answer was always hamburgers and Pepsi Cola. If
Elea didn't like someone, he or she was a "cammunist."

I attended the Eggnolf (I think the spelling is
correct) Day Nursery and Sylvia would take me there before she went to
Battin High School. We would take the bus and she would always hold my
hand to keep them warm. I can't say I liked the nursery because they
gave us medicine. We would have lunch, give us pills, probably
vitamins, and I would put them in the pocket of my dress and on the way
to school throw them down the sewer drain. I think they were chocolate
covered because for some reason I remember brown spots on the pocket of
my dress.

When we lived on Bond Street the landlord lived on
the first floor. You had to pass his door in order to go up the stairs
and I was afraid of him. I would walk pass his door very quietly and as
soon as I could, I would run up the stairs to our apartment on the
third floor. When I was about four or five I was very sick. I was
throwing up and my parents called the doctor. When he didn't come, they
called him again. Finally, he came. It seems the landlord told the
doctor we didn't live there. I was taken to the hospital, had my
appendix removed and someone brought me a little plastic telephone
filled with candies. Another time I was riding on the back of a sled,
and we were riding down the hill next to the railroad tracks. I wasn't
supposed to be doing that, but I did anyway. We rode into the fender of
a car that was parked at the curb. I tore my leggings and had a very
bad cut on my right knee. I remember being taken to the emergency room
and I was so scared that I wet myself on the examining table. I ripped
the knee of my snowsuit and I wouldn't be surprised if that was the
last time I rode on a sled down the tracks.

Mom and Pop played poker Saturday nights with other
Assyrians. We would go to a different home each Saturday night and it
was my job to serve tea, "jajik" and crackers and probably clean the
ashtrays. But I always went home a winner because I would get a quarter
from each pot. I'm thankful I grew up surrounded by so many Assyrian
families. Everyone was like family. Once we went to someone's house and
I was asked if I wanted to eat. I remember something about string
beans. My mother said I wasn't hungry because we had already eaten and
that I didn't like string beans but I said I was hungry and loved
string beans. I probably didn't like them because Mom was always
saying, ""at, Dede, eat" I hated to eat, especially spinach. I would
still be at the kitchen table, long after everyone else was finished.
My father was wonderful though. When my mother would leave the kitchen
he would motion for me to push my plate toward him, he would eat all
the food still on my plate and then push the plate back to me. By the
time my mother returned to the kitchen, my plate was clean. I don't
know if we fooled her but it sure worked for me.

My father wasn't any different than other fathers.
When he was a child in Persia he walked to school 10 miles in the snow,
barefoot, uphill, both ways. But he gave the best baths. The word I
remember is "bishi bishi". I only hope it means "bath". He would be so
gentle but my mother would scrub and scrub until you thought your skin
would come off. I must have gone to camp and I was very tan. Mom
scrubbed and scrubbed, thinking it was dirt. I much preferred Pop's
baths.

When I was 12 years of age we moved to Shearer Avenue
in Union. In order to get into the front door of our new house we wad
to walk on planks. I can still smell the newness of the wood and our
first dinner was eggs and corn niblets. My mother work for Jack, making
lingerie. I would have to help her count her "bundles", which
determined how much money she earned. We would sit at the dining room
table and tally them. She made slips for us too and they never wore
out. I used to wish they did and wanted to be able to buy one from the
store. She made nightgowns also, and they never wore out either. I wish
I had them now. When the kids were little she loved to tease them. She
would hold a dollar bill in her hand and ask them for a kiss. Even
though the grandchildren didn't like to kiss, the money was a wonderful
incentive.

It was also my job to sit at the kitchen table and
peel the apples for apple pie. Mom's cooking instructions consisted of
"Dede, get me the sugar. Now put the sugar away and get me the flour,
and so on". I still think about her directions for making rice pudding.
After all the ingredients are added, just "stir until it's not to tick
and not too tin". Mom never used a recipe, at least not that I
remember. We would go to the market each Saturday but it was wonderful
when we got home because we could eat fresh bagels and butter. Mom was
a wonderful cook and I can still her baking chadah. It was golden
brown, filled with butter and mouth watering. I'm glad we didn't know
about cholesterol in those days. If we did, I never heard of it.

One year mom went to California for a vacation. Elea
and Pop took care of us and did the cooking. They went to the store and
bought so much food that someone would think they were cooking for an
army instead of three girls who didn't each much. I think we even had a
case of green grapes under the bed because there wasn't room for it any
other place.

Sylvia and I would dance in the living room. She
would play records and use me as her partner to improve her dancing
skills. To this day when I hear music from that era, I can still
picture us dancing. Our favorite Christmas carol was Joy to the World.
I sang alto and she sang soprano. Now I would never deliberately lie
about anyone but I have to say this. I think Irene and Rip married soon
after we moved to Union but I do remember one thing in particular about
her. When anyone talked to Irene in the morning, she snarled. She gave
new meaning to the question, "What's the matter? Haven't you had your
coffee yet?"

Sylvia and I cleaned the house every Saturday. One
week she would clean upstairs, I would clean downstairs, and we would
change floors the next week. I knew that when Sylvia cleaned our
bedroom she did such a good job that when it was my turn, I didn't have
the move the dresser. The only problem was that when you walked up the
stairs you could see under the dresser and of course see the dust. I
got caught every time and had to move the furniture and dust under it.
(I don't remember if it was Mom or Sylvia who always caught me.) After
our cleaning was finished we would go to Florence Neesan's beauty shop.
Sylvia would have her hair done and if there was enough hot water left
and Florence had time, she would do my hair also.

I was Renee's baby-sitter. She cried a lot and had to
be rocked in the carriage or walked constantly. An evening with Renee
gave a person lots of exercise. When she cried, you could hear her a
mile away. Rip would take me to White Castle for hamburgers on the way
home.

We had wonderful times at Mom's house when we were
all together for Sunday dinner or one day during the week. Mom would
never sit down, just go back and forth from the kitchen to the dining
room, with a towel hung around her arm, bringing us food. We

would all take home enough food to have at least one
or two more meals. I'm thankful for the example of hospitality, not
only in our house, but in the homes of other Assyrian

families as well.

MAMA MARY YOHANNAN AURAHAM

BY IRENE LANDER

I often rode beside my mother in the
car slowly driving to the other end of town to visit Mama. My mother
often wore a dress with a billowy skirt and I was aware of her legs on
the gas pedal. She often drove me to my grandmother's house, but I
barely remember why the two of us would visit her alone.

I do know that on Sundays my father drove our whole
family, two adults and three to four children, to Mama's house for
dinner. When I was six years old, my grandfather Elisha was still
alive, and I remember him sitting in the kitchen chair. I noticed small
tablets of saccharin on the table that I think were his. I remember a
small alarm clock loudly clicking in his bedroom and his feet pressed
against my stomach lifting me over his body, a game I guess we enjoyed.

By the time I was ten years old, Elisha was gone, and
Sunday dinners continued for many years at Mama's house: a box-like
center-hall colonial with a large living room, adequate dining room and
kitchen. Mama served a repetitive but delicious menu consisting of
grilled or barbecued lamb, stuffed cabbage leaves (dolma), delicious
rice, meatballs with a sauce made gritty by barley, and lamb stew
(kurish). I never grew tired of the food that was seasoned well with
spices I now know to be dill, parsley and maybe cardamom. Sometimes she
served chada, a rich buttery pastry that melted in my mouth and was
served with tea.

I rarely spoke to my grandmother directly and felt
she was always a stranger to me in spite of the familiarity of her
presence and the family dinners. She worked hard, lifting large pots of
rice with her hefty arms and stirring things on the stove. Her house
was clean and beautified by Persian rugs. I think she liked to watch
television, especially CBS and a show called Tattletales. Her
countenance lifted when she sat among friends and relatives who spoke
to her in Assyrian. Then I would see her laugh and talk about things I
knew not what. I suppose my grandmother mentally lived in the old world
even though she had already been in the USA for many years before I was
born.

Because of my grandmother, I learned about an
Assyrian heritage far removed from my day-to-day existence and the
public schools and by-ways of suburban America. Through her many
friends and connections, I attended Assyrian picnics, dances and
conventions. Her friends and relatives were warm and provided a
beautiful backdrop to my young American life. However, when she died
along with many of her friends, my participation in all groups Assyrian
ceased to exist. My mother is currently gathering the elements of this
heritage in order to preserve it for her children and grandchildren. I
am thankful to mom for preserving our Assyrian past, especially the
traumatic uprooting of Mama and her generation from their comfortable
lives in Iran to an American society far different from the stable
agricultural and village communities of their upbringing.

GROWING UP IN AN ASSYRIAN FAMILY

BY GRACE YOHANNAN COTTO

I did not grow up in a "traditional" home; I began my
life in a household completely full of adults. Mom, Dad, and I lived
with my grandparents, whom I called Nanny and Grandpa, at 728 Jersey
Avenue, in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Dad says he and Mom named me for "the
grace of God." That's a pretty important moniker to have to live up to.

Uncle Jim, my father's younger brother, was part of
the household. Uncle Ephraim, Dad's older brother, and his wife, Aunt
Rose, lived nearby so that I saw them quite frequently.

Grandpa passed away when I was only seven years old,
so I don't have many memories of him, but the ones I have are pleasant,
and they are in my poem "Grandpa." He had reddish hair and was very
tall and very strong. I have two distinct memories of him: the first is
hiding under the coffee table in Nanny's living room, while everyone
was having glasses of chai. Grandpa would reach into the sugar bowl,
knowing I was under the table, and would pass me a cube of sugar for my
sweet tooth! The other memory is of Grandpa taking me for a ride in my
green wagon about two blocks to the Grand Union food market and getting
me a miniature loaf of Wonder Bread and a balloon that were being given
away as a promotion. Even today, freshly baked bread reminds me of that
little excursion we shared.

Nanny, though, is a completely different story. Much
of whom I am today was shaped by her influence as the matriarch of our
family. Even when Mom and Dad bought their own home several miles away
in Roselle, N.J. Dad stopped by Nanny's house every night on his way
home, especially after Grandpa died. While freshly baked bread reminds
me of Grandpa, it is mothballs that remind me of Nanny. She had them
scattered everywhere under her Persian rugs; their smell permeated the
entire house. And oh, she loved her rugs. I remember her taking me to a
department store in Newark, N.J. and riding us all the way to the top
floor, which meant riding a wooden escalator two floors, all the way to
the Persian rugs. I had a sense of family history when we walked among
rows and rows of brightly colored, individually handwoven rugs from far
away

I guess as the oldest of only three grandchildren, I
became the recipient of the family history. Whenever I visited Nanny,
even as part of a family visit, she would always take me aside and tell
me a bit about the family's history, as if she didn't want anyone to
ever forget what she and her family had been through because of their
faith.

When I think of my Assyrian heritage, it isn't the
same as people of Italian or Irish or German heritage think of their
ethnicity. Being an Assyrian is completely tied into Christianity.
After all, we were among the first to convert when the disciples spread
the Good Word. And my great-grandparents were among those massacred in
Urmia, Persia, because of their Christian faith.

The Assyrian Diaspora story is one I learned by heart
before I went to kindergarten. It made me wonder what everyone talked
about when they mentioned the holocaust that occurred in Europe; we
Assyrians were and still are suffering a holocaust because of our
religion.

Don't get me wrong. I loved Nanny's cabbage leaf
dolma and her kipte (please check spelling). And every once in a long
while, Aunt Nano in Chicago would send some chaddah û oh, that
was better than candy! And then there was Nanny's rice! Mom is the only
person I know who can come close to Nanny's rice. And her rice pudding
was to die for! I loved Assyrian cooking û just not the grape
leaf dolma, which Nanny made especially for Mom. We would be taking a
family ride to New Britain, CT, or even to Bloomfield, NJ to see Aunt
Leah, and Nanny would have plastic bread wrappers in her handbag.
Whenever she would see some wild grape leaves growing beside the road,
she would have Dad stop the car so she could get out and pick the best
of the leaves. Oh, and there was one other things: we didn't stop at
restaurants when we traveled. Nanny made some of her famous hamburger
sandwiches, laden with dill and "tole"/tarragon. What I wouldn't give
for one of those cold hamburger sandwiches today.

Nanny was extremely smart and educated. She often
talked to me about the responsibilities of being a teacher, a charge I
carry today in a renewed educational career teaching students with
disabilities at Apopka High School here in Apopka, Florida. I had been
a teacher of English on the senior high and junior college level for
many years and had earned an M.A. in English. Now, as of December 1999,
I will have an M.A. in Varying Exceptionalities. I know Nanny would be
very proud of my educational accomplishments.

Nanny's favorite game shows were those that
challenged her mind. She enjoyed Wheel of Fortune, but she positively
loved Jeopardy. I would sit in amazement as she would give the correct
answers before the contestants did. She valued education and knew it
was an important tool for success. I always was proud of my grandmother
and the terrible obstacles she overcame to get to the United States.
When the killing against Christians began, she was on her way home from
church, with my infant Uncle Ephraim in her arms. Suddenly, a man with
a gun looked menacingly toward her and forced her into a room full of
Assyrians. Just as suddenly, gunfire broke out. The first hail of
bullets killed a tall man in back of Nanny. He fell on Nanny who had
the sense to put her hand over Uncle's mouth so he wouldn't cry out,
and they lay as if dead until all the killers left. With a "strength
from God," Nanny was able to life a man three to four times her weight
as if he were a feather, and she and Uncle Ephraim escaped out the
door. She was walking toward her home when some Muslin neighbors saw
her and hid her because of the vendetta against the Christians. All the
Christians û her fellow Presbyterians and the Catholic
congregation û all were dead or being hunted down. As I
understand the story, Grandpa was in the hills or somewhere out of
town. The neighbors hid Nanny until he returned, and they began a seven
year exile throughout the Middle East. Before they left the Urmia area,
Nanny bribed some guards with jewelry to rescue some young cousins whom
she shepherded to safety singlehandly. Nanny, Grandpa and Uncle Ephraim
wound up in Bombay, India,, where the Red Cross helped her find a
sewing machine so she could make some clothes. They helped the refugee
family get to Marseilles, France, where a ship was waiting to take them
to America. At the last minute, Nanny's youngest and dearest brother
Teddy was discovered to have tuberculosis and wasn't allowed to
accompany them.

Through the dead of winter, the refugees huddled in
the hold of the Canada, bound for Providence, Rhode Island. Nanny was
in the last trimester of her pregnancy with my father. When they
arrived in R.I. the quota for Assyrians had been filled for the year
1920, but when the immigration officials discovered Nanny spoke and
read Aramaic, Farsi, Assyrian, and English and was a teacher, they let
the family into the country. They made their way to Elizabeth, NJ, in
the "port" section where they lived in a fourth-story cold-water flat,
where my father was born in January 1922.

My grandmother suffered many hardships. She lost her
entire family, crossed a stormy Atlantic Ocean in her last trimester of
pregnancy, and gave birth to a son who developed severe pneumonia and
wasn't expected to live. The doctors didn't count on my grandmother's
tremendous will. Years later, the doctors told her my father would have
died if anyone else had been his mother.

Several years later, tragedy struck the struggling
family once again,. My father's younger brother, James, was born
healthy, but the hospital nurses forgot to put special drops in his
eyes, and he was declared legally blind. Despite his handicap, my
grandmother tried to make his life as normal as possible.

After Grandpa died, Nanny moved to Roselle, about two
blocks from us. It was fun to ride my bike over to her house and watch
her scoop out cucumbers to stuff with dolma ingredients. I was over at
her house a lot. She wasn't the kind of person to hug and kiss and show
her affection, but I could tell she liked me. She always took time to
tell me about our family. She always tried to be forgiving of others,
but she also let me know others weren't as forgiving of her. I didn't
understand her words then because I was so young, but years later, my
mother told me a sad story. All of us belonged to First Presbyterian
Church in Roselle. We walked to church on Sunday when Dad was working,
and we walked to choir practice on Thursday nights and fellowship on
Sunday nights. I didn't know how highbrow the church was; I always felt
happy there, especially in the white chapel which wasn't as imposing as
the darker, larger sanctuary. Several times a year, the ladies of the
church put on a tea after the second service. It apparently was a great
honor to be asked to pour the tea. But before the tea was poured, the
ladies had a meeting to review what they had been doing so far. One
day, the president of the ladies' association wanted to honor women for
their commitment to Christ and asked for the ladies who had been
members of the "church" for more than 25 years to stand be recognized.
When Nanny started to stand up, the president said, "No, I meant only
those who have been in this church." If I had been there, I would have
been embarrassed for Nanny and then angry at those snooty women. I
still remembered that rebuke of someone who was more a Christian and
who knew what it was to suffer as a Christian when I married for the
first time. I married in my college's church, not in such a church
where all Christians weren't considered equal. I grew up a lot after
that experience.

Nanny was exacting, a tough but compassionate
teacher. Sometimes, when I look at photos of me in her arms or photos
of her with her clotheslines (they always seemed to get in outdoor
pictures), I don't think she's very far away. She was tough because her
life's circumstances demanded that she be tough. But she could love
equally as well, and I was glad she loved me even when I was two or
three years old and disobeyed and put the needle of her treadle sewing
machine into my finger! After I began to drive, I enjoyed taking her on
errands, except to the grocery store. I have to admit I was somewhat
embarrassed when she would be oblivious to everyone else standing in
line and proceed to rearrange all the groceries in the bags to her
satisfaction. "If a job is worth doing, it is worth doing right" was
her response.

I know the soul is energy, and that energy cannot
die: I like to think Nanny's soul is very close to me, hovering over
me, reminding me not to be too hard on my students with disabilities
but not to be too easy on them, either. She was a scholar and a
teacher, she was my friend and my grandmother, and I am thankful to God
that he shared her with me for so many years and that my own children
got to know her. She was unique. She was Hannah A. Yohannan.

SECTION VI - GENEALOGY

SYLVIA AURAHAN WEIDEMANN

Selby (Sylvia) Aurahan born April 14, 1927

Parents: Mary Yohannan and Elisha Aurahan, Born
Persia (Iran)

Sylvia married Theodore Charles Weidemann, January
16, 1965

Children: Adopted Daughter Tina Marie: granddaughter
of Ted Weidemann

Tina married Edward Castro, Jr.

Amber Renee Weidemann-Castro born to Tina Weidemann
April 10, 1999

5/99

IRENE AURAHAN KLISZUS

Irene Aurahan born March 22, 1929, Elizabeth,
New Jersey

Parents: Elisha and Mary Yohannan Aurahan

Parents born in Persia - (Iran) Aurahan married
Edward Anthony Kliszus on February 5, 1949

Amy Louise married Martin Rowshandel on June 11, 1993
in Cambridge, Mass.

Two children:

Alexandra M., born February 13, 1994 in Boston,
Massachusetts

Michael Simon Rowshandel, born October 3, 1995, in
Boston, Massachusetts

DANETTE BENITA AURAHAN BARTH
CHRISTENSEN

Parents: Mary Yohannan and Elisha Aurahan, born in
Persia (Iran)

Danette (DeeDee) married James Barth Sr. in
1954--divorced

DeeDee married Browning N. Christensen (Chris)
October 1979 - no children

Children: Two sons: James Thomas Barth Jr. born
September 4, 1954, Michael Steven Barth, born September 27, 1955

James Barth married Glenda--divorced

James Barth Jr. married Gail on August 21, 1987/no
children

JOSEPH DAVID JACOB

Joseph D. Jacob, born 13,1923, in Rezaieh, Iran

Parents: David and Joan Yohannan Jacob

Parents born in Rezaieh, Iran

Joseph married Grace Careb on June 21, 1952

Two Children:

David Ephraim, born April 21, 1956 in Gary Indiana

Mark William, born December 28, 1957 in Gary, Indiana

Mark married Elizabeth Gauja, July 5, 1991

Mark and Liz have a daughter, Abby, born on July 14,
1993

Mark and Liz are expecting a son: February 1999

11/15/98

DR. JACK D. JACOB

Born March 21, 1929, Rezaieh, Iran

Parents: Juan Yohannan and David Jacob, born in
Persia (Iran)

Jack married Nora Badalianan in July 1966 in Tehran,
Iran

Twin children as follows:

Joy and Roge Jacob, born August 30, 1967

Joy married Bill Sheldon in Denver, Colorado on
September 6, 1998

Roge married Sharon in San Jose, California: one
child

Olivia Nora Jacob, born January 3, 1999 - 7 lbs.6
oz--20" length

Y. PETE JACOB

Pete Jacob, born January 16, 1934, Rezaieh, Iran

Parents: David and Joanne Yohannan Jacob

Parents born in Persia - Iran

Pete Jacob married Dorothy Combs on August 8, 1959 in
Gary, Indiana

Two children as follows:

William (Bill) Peter, born August 7, 1963

Joseph (Joe) John, born May 8, 1966

Bill married Carolyn Williams, March 14, 1987 in
Uniontown, Pa.

Two children:

David Peter, born September 21, 1994 in Columbus,
Ohio

Laura Claire, born July 23, 1998 in Columbus, Ohio

Joe married Marisol Lugo, October 17, 1998 in Tampa,
Florida

11/19/98

* * * * * * * * * *

JULIE JACOB GOLPASHIN

Julie Jacob born July 3, 1941 in Rezaieh, Iran

Parents: David and Joanne Yohannan Jacob

Parents born in Iran (Persia)

Julie Jacob married Dr. Sargon S. Golpashin on July
21, 1965 in Germany

Two sons:

Albert, born October 12, 1967 in Herne, Germany

Edmund , born August 11, 1971 in Herne, Germany

Edmund married Nancy Benjamin November 1, 1997

Albert, single and eligible

12/10/98

SECTION VII: CORRESPONDENCE FROM FEBRUARY 3,
1997-APRIL 26, 1999

Letter from Grace Yohannan Cotto,
granddaughter of Hannah Yohannan, aunt of Mary Yohannan Aurahan, Joan
Yohannan Jacob and William Joseph Yohannan, in response to packet of
Assyrian research sent her at bequest of her Uncle Ephraim Yohannan,
son of Hannah. Hannah had three sons: Ephraim, John and James.

February 3, 1997

Dear Cousin Irene:

What a pleasant surprise to open your warm and
friendly and informative letter! I am glad to hear you are well, as I
hope your entire family is.

I guess Uncle Eppo gave you a copy of the material I
pulled off the Internet, but in case he didn't I am enclosing a copy
for you.

Five months ago, there was hardly anything on the Net
about Assyrians; now, there are 78 websites! It was so exciting to pull
up information about my family and my heritage; it is very sacred to
me, as is the memory of my grandmother and grandfather.

Thank you sending me some information about our
family.

Of your mother, I remember her setting out the
charcoal-filled samovar on a Persian rug in your back yard and
surrounding it with a big plate of chadda - my favorite.

Of your father, I remember Mom telling me he was a
cook or a chef. I remember he taught me how to stack a deck of cards so
I would win at solitaire every time! It's funny what children remember,
isn't it?

Of Cousin Sylvia, I remember her playing Scrabble
with Mom in our back yard; she was a frequent visitor, and I remember
Mom enjoying spending time with her. It must have been nice to talk to
an adult instead of three demanding children.

I don't know if Uncle Eppo told you, but I visited
him and Aunt Rose and Uncle Jim in Turlock four or five years ago, when
my work took me out to Sacramento. He and Aunt Rose drove to the
airport and drove me back to there house where I spent a three day
weekend. Uncle Jim and I walked several miles along the canals that run
down the middle of the streets to irrigate their vineyard.

I moved down here to Florida seven years ago this
past November. I could not take the cold and winter of NJ any longer,
especially rising in the dark, driving in the snow and ice, and driving
home in the dark. I bought a three bedroom, two bath house here in a
new subdivision in Apopka, about 30 miles northwest of Orlando
International Airport.

I met my husband Henry two years ago on a hot, muggy
August night when he came to fix my broken air conditioner. He wound up
staying and marrying me last January 20th. He is very creative like my
dad, and he gets along very well with Mom and Dad as well as my
children Douglas who is 26 and just received his M.A. in Russian
Studies from Georgetown University and

my daughter Jennifer (who likes to be called Jenna
because she thinks Jennifer is "ordinary") who received her B.A. in May
from Skidmore College and is engaged to a terrific fellow named Kevin
who is in the U.S. Army at Fort Drum (where Uncle Eppo used to go on
summer maneuvers, believe it or not); they are going to be married in
November.

My sister Rosemarie lives about 200 miles west of
here, about an hour south of Tallahassee. We write occasionally, but we
are not as close as I would like us to be. Her husband Don is a bit of
a hermit.

My brother Johnny lives in Astoria, NY. He is
battling cancer. He and I are very close and we write each other and
phone a lot. He is very close to Jennifer; it's as if when she was
born, he and she shared a very special connection - sort of like a
private party line.

I am hoping eventually Mom and Day will move down
here. Henry and I are looking for property to build another house on,
one where Mom and Dad could put a modular home when they move down.
Henry enjoys my dad's eccentricity and my mother's sense of humor and
her enjoyment of an occasional beer with him. We have a small boat they
enjoy cruising on with us on the St. John's River.

Cousin Irene, it was really wonderful to hear from
you. I hope we will keep in touch. I think it is very important our
children and the rest of the world learn of the massacre our people
suffered in the name of Christ so that it, like the Jews' Holocaust,
never happens again. We may be a minority, but it's quality that
counts, not quantity.

Do you have e-mail? My address is above. Zenda sends
its weekly online magazine to me so I can read about other Assyrians. I
am hoping to find some here in Central Florida. I would like to learn
to make chadda, and I would love to learn how Nanny made that wonderful
cabbage leaf dolma and rice of hers!

Take care. I am glad you took the time to write.

Love, Grace

February 12, 1997

Dear Grace:

Thanks so much for your letter of February 3rd. It
was great hearing from you. And especially thanks for all the data you
sent. No, I don't have E-mail or am on the WWW. When I worked, I was on
the computer every day and only use the computer for word processing.
Just can't get interested in pounding the keys any more. My son, Ed,
lives 15 minutes away and when I need to research, he does it. In fact,
when I started last year, he got on the web and you are so right, we
only found one site, which is where we found

Nabu books in Chicago and started me off with Lt.
Col. Stafford's book.

Here's an interesting thing about your brother
Johnny--quite a few years ago, the comedian Jackie Mason had a
late-night talk show, which for some reason I was watching. A young man
from the audience spoke who introduced himself as John Yohannan!! I
can't imagine he wasn't OUR John Yohannan. I remember he was quite
articulate. I am very sorry to hear he is ill. I remember seeing him as
an infant. And what I remember about Rosemarie is that she and my
daughter Renee were baptized the same Sunday at Greystone Pres. Church.
Renee was born in 1951.

This project of mine began when our grandchildren
began asking my husband me questions about our backgrounds and we both
found out then that we knew next to nothing .Thus began what we
presumed would be a short narrative took on a life of its own. My
husband, Edward Kliszus, is from a Lithuanian background and we're also
working on that. We are making tentative plans to go to Chicago in
April to a museum of Lithuania culture and genealogy and research their
files. We also got in touch with some of his relatives and have family
trees. On the internet, we found some historical information too.

Whenever we're finished, we are thinking about having
our manuscripts printed so that our progeny in the next century will
have a sturdy copy of their history. What we want to do is in addition
to the begets, is present a picture of our lives as children, young
adults, and "mature" citizens. We want to present a human face.

Grace, enclosed is a picture my son found in my
mother's album which somehow he had in his possession. It is a picture
of your grandmother's brother Teddi, of whom she always spoke. When I
saw it, I instantly knew he was Teddi Yohannan because he is the image
of your father as a young man.

Your grandmother, the indomitable Hannah, would be
thrilled to know your children are academics. I mean, what else would
we expect from the Yohannans.!!!

Thank you very, very much for your letter of February
11,1997 and your paper "American Presbyterian Missionaries at Urmia
During the Great War".

I've read the paper twice and get a very eerie
feeling reading about Urmia, (Ur-me) Tabriz (Taw-ris), Kurds,
(punctuated with great contempt) and Hakkari (Shop-in-eye) since all my
life those words were regularly spoken by everyone in my "then world".

This project started when my husband and I bought a
video camera last year and filmed landmarks of our youth in Elizabeth,
N.J., then followed by a short, short narrative, which was so short, we
realized how little we both knew, which led us to our son's house and
the Internet, where we found one site each for Assyria and Lithuania,
which led to Nabu Books and the Lithuanian Gen. Society in Chicago ,
Presbyterian Archives, etc. etc.

Over the past year, I've been contacting my various
relatives: Aunt Marge, Cousin Ephraim who are survivors, which led me
to a Network of interested kinfolk. Therefore, I've enclosed some of my
discoveries. Our old printer decided it would only "print screen" so
the computer stuff is what I could get printed. Am transferring the
data to our up-graded computer but thought you might be interested in
reading what is available. The newest information is on the new
computer.

Would it be possible for you to mail copies of your
paper to the names highlighted on the Network Page? I don't have the
facilities to make copies. Those names are the cousins with whom I have
had the most personal contact. If not, I'll manage something.

Husband Ed and I are going to Philadelphia tomorrow
to research my grandfather's Presbyterian Church. Our daughter, Laura
Keyser, will meet us there--we invited her because she is so good at
that kind of paper work. In April, Ed and I are planning a trip to
Chicago to the Balzekas Museum and Genealogy Society.

I do have one question for you: how did you get
interested in the massacre of a small minority in a country hardly
anyone ever heard of until the hostage crisis at the American embassy
in Tehran, and in Boise - no less!!

Belvidere is about an hour and a half from Lombard St
in Philadelphia and it would be a pleasure and honor the both of us to
meet you.

Sincerely yours,

Irene Kliszus

43 Sarepta Road Belvidere, N. J. 07823

908-475-2134

Enclosures - A lot

March 3, 1997

Dear Sylvia:

Hi, I've spent the last six months working on the
Assyrian Research Project and yesterday we printed everything. I
thought you would like the three sections enclosed. The Nestorians has
a surprise!

The other stuff is some basic history. Rip and I have
been to the Princeton Theological Seminary and the Presbyterian
Historical Society in Philadelphia with Laura. She's a good researcher.

I even have a "Network" now, including Grace Yohannan
who is living in Florida with her second husband.

This research has given me a more sympathetic view of
our mother and father. You always said mom was unhappy and how right
you were.

We're also working on the Lithuanian side and
according to the Balzekas Genealogical Society in Chicago, Kliszus is
the Polish spelling, not Lithuanian. In Lithuanian, it Klisius with a
mark over the g the h sound. We're thinking about taking a trip to
Chicago to research there. They're having some kind of event in April
and since Rip is now a member, we'll probably be extended an invitation.

In December, just before Christmas, Rip had a tear
in his left eye and had to have laser surgery. That was a big surprise.
The Doctor saw him on the Sunday before Christmas in the office. We did
appreciate how they responded to the emergency. He went back every day
except Christmas and the day after, he had to go to the Hospital for
the surgery.

How did your colonoscopy, or whatever it was, turn
out?

It's now 10:30 p.m. and I think my electric blankets
warmed the sheets.

Happy reading.

Love,

March 7, 1997

Dear Cousins: (cousins are Elisha Aurahan's nephew
and living in Germany)

Thank you very much for your Christmas card. I wasn't
able to send you one because I couldn't find your correct address but
it was very nice to hear from you. It seems so long ago we met but I
always remember what a good time we all had.

In the past year, I've been writing about my father
and mother's life in Persia. There is more information on Mary but I
hardly know anything about Elisha, my father. I do think that he and
his brother Esau walked across Russia to come to the United States. His
brother had no children and they were both here by World War I because
we have a picture of them in uniform. I know, of course, that your
mother was their sister but beyond that , I know practically nothing.

Would it be possible for you to send me information
how we are related. I know our grandmother's name was Selby...what was
our grandfather's name? Were there other sisters or brothers? Anything
you could tell me about our cousins in Persia would be much
appreciated.

I hope you like living in Germany. Is your whole
family together in Germany?

I look forward to hearing from you and filling in the
gaps of the Auraham's.

Love,

March 15, 1997

Dear Dottie and Pete,

For the past year I've been researching our mutual
Yohannan heritage and have compiled a pamphlet of sorts. This was begun
because my grandchildren were doing papers in school on their
backgrounds and asked me questions for which I had no answers.. So,
have been reading and researching here and there and enclosed is the
listing of the assortment of the topics.

If you are interested in any of this material, let me
know and I'll be glad to send you copies. It would be very helpful,
Pete, if you would send me a paragraph or two about your mother's life
when she, Mary and Bill were eventually separated.

My mother spoke very, very little about those years
and after reading The Tragedy of the Assyrians and Lt. Col. Stafford's
book and others, I can understand why.

We have had a cold and wet winter here on the east
coast and am looking forward to the re-appearance of the sun aka
unidentified flying object!

Love,

Irene

43 Sarepta Rd

Belvidere NJ 07823

908-475-2134

June 11,1997

The following is a letter written by my cousins
Gourgiv and Issavi, AM Hennsee Sa, 60386 Frankfurt, Germany, in reply
to my letter of March 7, 1997 requesting information

on my father Elisha Auraham. Gourgiv is his nephew,
son of his sister Magdlita Abndsy:

May 25, 1997: Dear Irene: We were so happy to receive
your letter and to now that you are going well. You asked about the
life in Germany: Actually, to tell you the truth the only sad thing is
the bad weather condition; it has too much rain and less and less
sunshine!

Here is the story about how your father came to the
states from Russia: First of all, our great-grandfather was Odishou and
our grandfather's name was Auraham.

Auraham was married with Salby (Selby) our
grandmother, they had four children as follows: Esau, Khoushaba,
Magdlita and Elisha.

Elisha and Esau were in fact in Russia around World
war I. But Esau has to leave Russia because of some big vexation in
business with some unpleasant people over there, and the things were
going from bad to worse for him. He brought later your father Elisha to
the states. Esau was an officer in the states during the World War,
that's the reason why they wear uniforms in your picture.

And now, the end of this letter is near, so I would
like to wish you happiness and I'm going also to add some information
about the chart of our relations on the back side of this paper
beginning with our great-grandfather Odishou.

We are hoping to hear from you in the next few years
as it's so funny how time slips and runaway!

Antoinette (living in Persia) Lidia (living in the
States) and Antoine, living in Germany

June 12, 1997

Dear Sylvia:

I'm pretty much finished with my Assyrian Research
and thought you would be interested in a copy of a letter from our
cousin German. I wrote and asked him if he could shed any light on his
side of the family and this is his answer.

How do you like the "vexation" in Russia for our
uncle Esau!! He was always kind of a smooth operator. I wondered how he
and Pop got to the U.S. without any money but I have a feeling our
uncle had some stashed away from his vexation friends.

I also called Margie to see how she was and she told
me that Uncle Bill was supposed to be the next Mar Yohannan and that
was why he came to America to go to Princeton. She said he said that he
was the inheritor of the Mar position but he fell in with the wrong
crowd. She also told me our great grandmother was hacked to death by
the Moslems because they wanted to know where the gold was buried.
Margie said that the gold to this day is still buried somewhere.

Our great, great grandfather was the Mar Yohannan who
was the translator to the first Presbyterian missionaries. He was the
Nestorian mentioned in the missionary paper, our great grandfather was
next; our grandfather was killed and our uncle fell in with the wrong
crowd in America.

We went to see Rosemary Clooney at Rainbow and Stars
and the reservations were hard to come by but what a waste of money.
She hobbled on stage--she has a plate in her knee--she only sang a
couple of numbers and gave little chats in between about Louie
Armstrong or Prima. The room was full of her fans. Then guess who was
singing there with her, none other than Dolores Hope, Bob's wife. She
was wearing a wig and she looked like she could hardly make it to the
bandstand. But believe it or not, she sang better than Clooney. They
both disappeared at the stroke of 11 and were never seen again.

That's about it. It's 10:00 PM now and I'm on my way
to bed. I surely hope you are in good health.

Love,

June 23, 1997

Dear Eppo:

It was very nice to hear from you. Your farm products
sound delectable. We buy asparagus in seasons from a local farm and the
taste of fresh harvested vegetables is beyond comparison to anything
the local super market has to offer. Don't be too surprised at us
living here in Warren County. If you could see Union Township and Union
County today you'd be heading for Belvidere too. We traveled all around
New Jersey for two years looking for a place to live. The shore is wall
to wall malls and wall to wall people. The Garden State Parkway is just
that - a giant parking lot. Rt. 22 is filled with stores on the left,
the right and in the middle and Morris Avenue is still the only road
going east to west and everybody is on it at the same times of day.

Dede is living very happily in Colorado with her
second husband. Her address is 8453 Norwich Street, Westminister
Colorado 80030. Her name is Mrs. B. N. Christensen and she works in
Denver. As a matter of fact, her birthday is July 6th at which time she
will be 61. I refuse to believe that my little sister is 61.

I'm about done with my Assyrian research and have
enclosed a letter from my father's nephew for your perusal. Also
enclosed is a picture of Mar Yohannan that my daughter Laura sent me.
She got very interested in her Assyrian heritage and especially the
work of the Presbyterians and has been reading books in the
Philadelphia Library. She wrote a poem about the events of her
grandmother's life and is on the Web with others - like Grace is.
Margie told me that this Mar Yohannan is the head of the Nestorian
church and he was the missionary's translator back in 1834 or so; the
second Mar Yohannan had to be my great-grandfather; and my grandfather,
Joseph died in the massacre. Margie said Bill was sent to America to go
to Princeton to be the successor but said he always said "I got in with
the wrong crowd". It's been very nice to correspond with you over the
past year. Please give my regards to Jim. Rose is blessed to have you
as her husband.

Love, Irene

July 10, 1997

Mr. and Mrs. J. Jacob

2315 Cambridge Drive

North Brook, Illinois 60062

Dear Joe and Grace:

Found your name and address on the Internet. I do
hope you both are who I think you are!!!!

Because I've been using your Family Tree extensively
over the past two years while researching our mutual heritage, I
thought you might be interested in some of the results

which are enclosed.

In THE NESTORIANS, our great great-grandfather, Mar
Yohannan, was the translator for the Rev. Justin Perkins. Aunt Marge
and Ephraim Yohannan also wrote me of their memories which have been
included in the text of what amounts to quite a few pages.

The valiant worthies encountered in this research
have left me quite humbled.

Sincerely,

Irene Kliszus

43 Sarepta Road

Belvidere, NJ 07823Enclosures

Dated July 17, 1997

Dear Cousin Irene:

Thank you for the papers which you sent me. The
results of your labor in digging the archives of your or our ancestors.
I'm so glad that you have found interest in your background. It is
funny that when we get old, we remember our old heritage. There was a
time when we did not want to be known as anything but American. Times
have changed too.

Anyway, none of what you have discovered is new to
me. I have read many books on the subject and of course have heard many
of these stories. However, there are a few questions. The story of Mar
Yohannan, our great-great-grandfather -- have you heard it (word of
mouth) or read about it? Because, I had heard the same thing but it was
my great-great-grandfather (Paternal). The story was that American
missionaries on their way from Tabriz to Urmia stopped in Gavilan. That
is where they met Kasha Yohannan. They learned the Assyrian language
from him. Then they proceeded to Urmia. Later they translated the Bible
in Assyrian and later printed it and other books in Assyrian. He could
be your grandfather too.

Secondly, you wrote "American Mission to Iran from
1834 to 1934." It is interesting to know that after one hundred years
missionaries contract in Urmia expired. The mission had to leave Urmia
and turn in all their buildings to the Iranian government - not sold.
This was the year that I was going to the American school at second
grade--ten years old--had to go to government school. We did not study
Persian so what do they put us at the first grade.

One more point that I object to in Dr. Shedd's notes:
he keeps mentioning over and over, "we had so many converts of Assyrian
Nestorians." Before Dr. Shedd knew what Christianity was, Assyrian
Nestorians were Christian and they were evangelizing Christ as far as
China.

Anyway, I thank you again for remembering us. Keep up
the good works and be proud of your ancestors. Regards to all.

Sincerely, Cousin Joe: Joe and Grace Jacob, 2315
Cambridge Dr., Northbrook, IL 60062PS Forgive any misspellings (if any)
and the paper that this is written on.

July 25. 1997

Dear Joe: (Joseph Jacob, Chicago)

Thanks for your letter. I am going to incorporate the
information you sent in the final text as a counter balance for the
letter from Dr. Shedd about the Nestorians.

Thought you might be interested in the enclosed paper
by Dr. Zirinsky. The Historical Society of the Presbyterian Church sent
me his name as a source of information. It's from a secular viewpoint
and I found it very enlightening.

For the past year we've been working on the
Lithuanian genealogy and we have found the church records the most
reliable. We've been researching the Census records of 1900, 1910 and
1920 and have located quite a lot of Lithuanians. In our researching,
only found 4 Assyrian families in all those years. The bulk of the
Assyrians seem to arrive after 1920. The 1930 census records are not
available until 70 years have lapsed--don't know if the year 2000 will
find me rolling microfilm at the Archives!!!!!

Nice to hear from you. Regards to all.

Your cousin,

43 Sarepta Road

Belvidere, NJ 07823

August 26, 1997

Mr. Ephraim Yohannan

550 N. Daubenberger Road

Turlock, CA 95380

Dear Eppo:

We went to the Elizabeth Public Library yesterday.
They added an extension in 1967 which houses all kinds of microfilm,
references, etc. Was very impressed. When we went to the New Jersey
Archives in Trenton last month, we were unimpressed. It was their new
office and it was so cramped that you could hardly turn around. The
Elizabeth Library was user-friendly and includes free parking in the
back. Anyway, we went through the Elizabeth City Directories from 1899
and up and found the enclosed from the 1937 volume. Thought you might
like a copy.

I just finished reading BLACK DOG OF FATE, by Dr.
Peter Balakian. He is Professor of English at Colgate University It's a
memoir and "is a brilliantly written, poetic, and personal
growing-up-American story, which becomes a story about the Armenian
Genocide...."

Your time seems to be at a premium, but if your
interested it's a Harper Collins publication, 1-800-242-7737 and the
cost is $24.00 plus S&H.

We're still working on our genealogy and it gets more
interesting as lives unfold via the various sources available.

Wish you and Rose well and say hello to Jimmy.

Love,

August 31, 1997

Mr. Joseph Jacob

2315 Cambridge Drive

Northbrook, IL 60062

Dear Joe:

We've been taking pictures of the Assyrian headstones
for our booklet. We've noticed the Assyrian written on these two graves
and no is left in N.J. who can read Assyrian.

Would it be asking too much to ask you to translate
for our edification? Would appreciate it very much.

I just finished reading BLACK DOG OF FATE by Dr.
Peter Balakian. He is Professor of English at Colgate University. It's
a memoir and "is a brilliantly written, poetic, and personal
growing-up-American story, which becomes a story about the Armenian
Genocide...."

I ordered it from HarperCollins at 1-800-242-7737 at
$24.00 plus Shipping, Handling & Tax.

Regards to all.

Sincerely,

September 12, 1997

Dear Joe: (Joseph Jacob, Chicago)

Thank you very much for the translations and the
information on History of the Amer.Presby.Mission to Iran. Found Nabu
Books two years ago on the Internet and ordered two books written in
1931 on the plight of the Assyrians. Thought they might be able to find
a copy of History.

We're compiling a genealogical history for our
progeny so in the year 2015 they'll be able to know something about all
of us. The pictures we took in the cemetery will be included. We also
made a video of landmarks of our childhoods and interviewed our
children and their children. They all make fun of us but I think
sometime in the next century, someone will be interested!!!

We're spending most of our time now on the Lithuanian
heritage. We've been to the Balzekas Museum of Lithuanian Culture and
Genealogical Society in Chicago on 6500 South Pulaski Road. They have
quite a collection of Lithuanian History and I wondered why don't the
Assyrians have an equivalent depository--or do they? The Genealogical
Society serves as a clearing house for research and welcomes
information from all Lithuanians. We sent them a picture of Edward Sr's
Confirmation class at St. Peter and Pauls R.C. Lithuanian Church taken
I think about 1941.

Thanks again / your cousin.

September 12, 1997

Evergreen Cemetery

PO Box 312

1137 North Broad Street

Hillside, N. J. 07205

Sirs:

My husband and I recently came to your office to
research my Uncle John Auraham's grave. Your office was very helpful
and we were able to take pictures of his unmarked grave and graves of
others who were my parents' and Uncle John's peer group.

We found my parents' graves - Aurahan - and took
pictures of two graves with Assyrian inscriptions which we were unable
to translate. The names are John Alamsha and Shamam Alamsha: and Pera,
Ruel and Asyet. Thanks to the good services of my cousin Joseph Jacob,
the inscriptions in English read as follows:

John Alamsha Pera

Babajan Gasha Eesho of Aliabad 1875 Ruel 1968

was born 1888 Died 1934

Shaman Alamsha 1884-1963

Asyet Daniel 1881-1938

She died because Adam sinned

She lived because Jesus died

Since Evergreen is on the register of National
Landmarks, it seems only fitting that these translations be recorded.

Thank you again for your courtesy to us.

Yours truly,

Edward and Irene (Aurahan) Kliszus

43 Sarepta Road

Belvidere, N. J. 07823

October 22, 1997

Jeannie Careb

15 Cedar Spring Road

Burlington CT 06013

Dear Jeannie:

When Sylvia told me you had written her I asked for
your address because I wanted to write you about a project of mine.
Over the past two years, Rip and I have been doing genealogical
research and the first year was spent on our Assyrian side.

The best information was found in the records of the
Historical Society of the Presbyterian Church, located in Philadelphia.
I found an original letter from a missionary talking about meeting Mar
Yohannan, the Patriarch of the Nestorian Church. Mar Yohannan helped
the missionaries translate the Bible into Assyrian. The missionary
during our parents' lives was the Rev. Dr. William A. Shedd, born in
Urumia. His father was the Rev. J. H. Shedd, whose original letter we
found in the archives.

Anyway----that was the beginning and I've found other
sources of information regarding the incident that changed our parents'
lives. Also, my Aunt Marge and Cousin Eppo

sent me their first-hand accounts, which I've
included. I also got a tape of Jack Badal discussing his memories. All
of this material will be incorporated in a booklet we're assembling for
our progeny in the next century.

So, this letter is to ask you if you would be so
generous as to send me your recollections of your dear mother's
memories. One day that I was there, when Amy was still in college, she
talked to me about how a Persian hid her in the barn to escape the
marauding Turks.

I've enclosed some materials that might be of
interest to you. Have more, as you can see from the Source sheet.

Please give my regards to all the Carebs. Rip and I
have very fond memories of our visits to Connecticut with my mother.
Mary and Jennie really loved each other and until I began this project
I just never, never appreciated how much they meant to each other.

Hope to hear from you.

Love,

The following is a reply from Jeannie Careb:

October 24, 1997

Dear Irene:

How sad that no one thought of this project while our
mothers were still with us. What a story they could of told. I regret
not taping them.

The few things I remember were the atrocities they
saw while young children.

A man had seven sons and the Turks put each son on
the father's knee and beheaded each one. The man begged to be killed
but they let him live and he eventually went insane. Or how when they
were running away in 1918, the elderly and very young were left on the
mountains to die because they could not walk any farther. My
grandmother and Uncle Johnny were taken prisoner and one of the Turkish
guards recognized them because he was a servant in their home before
the rebellion. He helped them escape. I could go on and on but I really
don't know if this is what you are looking for,.

My Aunt Esther (my mother's sister) has more details.
She is the Historian of the Solomon and Yohannan clan. She can tell you
about Goolpashan, their home town in Persia.

Mrs. Esther Payne, 8717 Pine Avenue, Miller, Indiana
46403

Hope all is well with you and your family. Sheila and
Glenn bought a house about a mile away from us. Jerry and I babysit
Jennifer (Jenny) 3 years old and Joseph, 4 months old. Sheila went back
to work full time. I retired in 1994, the company downsized me after 24
years. Your mother used to say each child is worth a million dollars. I
miss them so much. They were priceless and can never be replaced.
Imagine after all they went through to get her, they arrive with
nothing but the clothes on their backs, not knowing the language, etc.
That is why they appreciated this country so much.

Give our love to all,

Jean

November 4, 1997

Jean Careb

15 Cedar Spring Road

Burlington CT 06013

Dear Jean:

It was great to receive your letter. Your account of
the incident in Persia was very, very moving. I'm going to incorporate
it with the accounts from Aunt Marge, Eppo and Jack Badal. What I'm
trying to do is not just to give facts but to present a human face to
all the suffering. Anything you would want to be included, just send to
me. I don't edit anything but let the words speak for themselves.

The one thing really good about CIGNA's downsizing is
that it has given you an opportunity to babysit. Sheila is very very
fortunate to have you available. Her children couldn't be in better
hands.....they are always safe, secure, well-fed, well-clothed and
loved loved loved!!!!!!

I'm going to write to your Aunt Esther. One of the
problems I have is untangling the Solomons and the Yohannans. I use
Joe's family tree but still get confused. From what you say, Esther can
unravel the S's from the Y's.

Our mothers really did love each other. I miss them
too. Sometimes I think in my head "I better call my mother" and then I
remember.

Our grandchildren range from 20 year old Peter to 2
year old Michael--for a total of 10--4 boys and 6 girls. Two are in
college and Michael is still in diapers.

Keep in touch.

Love

Irene

43 Sarepta Rd

Belvidere NJ 07823

November 4, 1997

Mrs. Esther Payne

8717 Pine Avenue

Miller, Indiana 46403

Dear Esther

:

Jean (Careb) gave me your address and told me you
were the family historian. I had written her to tell her about a
project my husband and I have spent the last two years researching: our
ethnic backgrounds. I asked Jean to send me some reminiscences of
Jennie to include. Aunt Marge and my cousin Eppo Yohannan sent me first
hand accounts and Margie's nephew Kevin sent me a tape of Jack Badal
being interviewed. We went to the Presbyterian Historical Society in
Philadelphia and researched missionary letters one hundred years old
and found Mar Yohannan's name as the Nestorian who rode out to meet the
missionary. That was my great-great grandfather.

Don't want to just include "just the facts" but want
to present a human face. The ultimate aim is to leave behind two
genealogies: one Lithuanian and one Assyrian. And to include personal
information for our next generation. We're kind of patronized about it
but I tell our 4 children that their 10 mutual children, sometime in
the year 2010,20,30 etc. will find great value in what we did in the
dark ages of the 20th century.

Therefore, I'm writing to ask you if you would be
willing to share some information with me to add to my section. For
instance, I can never keep the Solomons straight from the Yohannans.
Did Kasha Yohannan, my mother's grandfather, have more than one wife?
Who were the Solomons in relation to the Yohannans? Joe's chart doesn't
list my cousins Elizabeth (Ezzo), Mae and Lorrie. But they were
Yohannans. Related how?

My husband and I were in Chicago in April to visit
the Balzekas Museum and Genealogy Society on So. Pulaski Street. We
were impressed with their exhibits and the information they supplied
regarding the Lithuanians in Lithuania and America. They have data on
Lithuanians supplied by others from the U.S. and sent us names of
others who are researching the same names we are. We corresponded with
them and even though they were not related to his father or mother, the
information reveals another layer of discovery. I asked Joe whether we
had such a clearing house for Assyrians and if not, why not.

We just got an e-mail address and wanted an address
no one else could POSSIBLY have - chada4@juno.com. Can you imagine,
there were 3 other chada addresses. Maybe I'll contact them and say -
you Assyrian?

I met and saw you at least 56 years ago when I was
about 16 years old - am 72 years old now. I hear from Sylvia every
Christmas and saw DeeDee about 25 years ago at a convention in Chicago
when your Uncle Bill was there.

Your mother, Bill and Joan were my father's sister's
children. Her name was Shalem Solomon (Yohannan), our grandfather
(Shalem's father) was married twice - not their grandfather the
minister - my father was their uncle and our first cousins.

Your Aunt Marge was a Yohannan through marriage,
period. She and Jack Badal know nothing about our side of the family or
history and Marge could have cared less about Bill's relatives when he
was alive.

Three brothers, Absolem, Joseph and David Yohannan
were cousins to my family on my father's side - and cousins to Mary,
Bill and Joan on their father's side. Elizabeth, Mae and Lorraine
(Lorrie) are David's children, which were related to your mother on her
father Baba Yohannan's side.

So you see if my aunt Shalem Solomon had not married
a Yohannan there would not have been Mary, Bill and Joan. Got it? I
hope so.

In our family there were 5 girls and 1 boy. All of
the girls kept Solomon as their middle name on our Social Security
cards in honor of our dad and your mother's uncle who you mother and
Bill adored. There is just my darling sister Mary and me left. She used
to send your mother cards all the time when she was ill.

If a person looks closely they can really see the
halo and wings - she is an angel of God in every sense of the word.

Your mother used to come once in a while to visit us
in Chicago and keep in touch with my mother, her aunt. Bill used to
call me quite often but my brother would go and see him when he could.
Bill gave my sister away when she was married in place of his Uncle, my
dad in 1949.

Love, Esther Solomon Payne

November 18, 1997

Mrs. Esther S. Payne

8717 Pine Avenue

Miller Beach, IN 46403-1442

Dear Esther:

Thank you very much for your letter. It cleared up
all my questions. I used Joe's Tree and your letter and finally
understood who was who. I confused my grandmother Shalem's family with
my grandfather's Yohannans. But now it's all straight in my mind.

I'm enclosing a picture of my great great-grandfather
Mar Yohannan, Bishop of the Assyrian Church that my daughter Laura
Keyser found in the Philadelphia library about Christians in Persia.
When I was at the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia with
my husband Ed and daughter Laura, who lives in Pennsylvania, she found
an original letter from the missionary who mentioned his first sight of
the Kasha as he galloped on his horse to greet him.

When my mother was in the nursing home, I used to
read Mary's letters to her. Mom was very happy when she received those
letters. She felt that she hadn't been abandoned. I visited her daily
because I selected a brand new nursing home near my office and went on
my lunch hour. Sylvia visited her on the weekends and her very young
grandchildren were brought to visit her also.

Thanks again for your letter. I'm including all
letters in the Assyrian portion of our research without any editing on
my part. The letters tell their own story.

Love,

Irene (Aurahan) Kliszus

43 Sarepta Road

Belvidere NJ 07823

January 4, 1998

Dear Cousin Irene:

I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate
your passing on anything you can find on our family history.

I know my grandmother was not a saint and sometimes
did things that unintentionally hurt others or upset situations, but
she was my grandmother and, as the oldest grandchild, I felt very close
to her and still do. I know my sister was afraid of her, and I don't
think my brother really related to her at all.

If you have a Mormon church near you, they can access
their Salt Lake City databank of information from there. Although I
only found the ship's manifest of passengers when Nanny, Grandpa and
Uncle Eppo came over, I know they have copies of the U.S. Census and
other records stored there. I would like to know when Grandpa came over
the first time; Mom seems to think he worked in Connecticut.

I have found some new websites on the Internet. One
has to do with the Assyrian Holocaust. Thanks to Zenda, the online
Assyrian weekly newsletter, I am aware these atrocities still continue
in Iraq. I have met some nice Assyrians over the Internet too. They are
interested in adding our family history to their databanks.

I am back teaching. This time, I am teaching special
education science and social studies in our local high school. I spent
the summer working for a Saudi Arabian businessman and his family, and
I will be helping one of the princes when he arrives for a visit this
spring. It is interesting work. I am still writing articles and
recently was published in PR Herald in Budapest.

Thanks again for all your interest and sharing. Love,
Grace

(Grace Yohannan Cotto)

January 8, 1998

Dear Malcolm:

It's always very nice to hear from you during
Christmas. The latest news on my Assyrian research is the inclusion of
recipes. Someone gave me pages from a cookbook that the ladies in
Yonkers wrote and they have now been included.

I do have a favor to ask of you. Marge and Ephraim
Yohannan have written some of their

memories of the trip to Hamadan and Jack Badal's
family gave me an oral tape of his memories.

Jack's is enclosed. Would you be able to write about
your family life in Iran? I gave my grandchildren a copy of these
personal recollections and they enjoyed them very much. It would be a
wonderful addition to my project We want to include as much first-hand
information as possible instead of just historical facts. For instance,
in the recipes for lulu ka bobs, I adapted my mother's adjustments and
refer to them as Mommaburgers!

We are having a warm December and January here on the
East Coast.

Regards to all.

Irene

43 Sarepta Rd

Belvidere, NJ 07823

January 8, 1998

Dear Cousins: (To Pete and Dottie Jacob)

In the process of updating our Christmas list, I
notice that you asked about our research project. As a matter of fact,
we've been thinking about having a "book" published if the price is not
prohibitive. Otherwise, we'll just make computer copies for our progeny.

We have a lot of material on both Iran/Assyria and
Lithuania. We've written to the National Archives of Poland and
Lithuania and are waiting for their replies. They say it will take
several/many months for them to respond because they are swamped with
requests.

Right now, we're using the Lafayette College library
and perusing microfilm of the New York Times from the early 1900's. We
haven't found any reference to Assyrians or Armenians yet. Imagine the
British papers would be the place to search.

Regards to all.

Love,

January 10, 1998

Grace Yohannan Cotto

672 Whitetail Loop

Apopka, Florida 32703-3123

Dear Grace,

It's great to hear from you. Our latest venture is
trips to Lafayette College in Easton PA to research the New York Times
microfilm from 1900-1918. We were there last Thursday and found in the
1918 microfilm the enclosed articles. Had to copy these on our fax
copier and I apologize for the quality. Didn't want to wait until I
could make better copies.

With regard to the entrance year of our relatives, we
found that the Census records of 1920 showed only about 3 Assyrian
families in Elizabeth, N. J. The next release date of the 1930 census
is the year 2000. The records are released 70 years after each census.
In the year 2000, probably most of the Assyrians we mutually know will
be listed and the year of entrance/immigration is asked. . My father
came to NYC before 1914 because he served in the US army, Sylvia was
born in 1927 in Elizabeth, so he would be living in New Jersey before
the 1930 census as would the other Yohannans. Make a date, Grace, to
roll the microfilm in that year. Since I'm already 68, don't know if
I'll be around or if I'll be able to roll film. By the way, as you roll
the microfilm your eyes get bleary and you head whirls so you have to
look away for a while. It's slow going but we plan to go to Lafayette
at least twice a month because the NEW YORK TIMES is a treasure trove
of our history.

"Enta Khannah" was revered by my mother and Uncle
Bill. I never could figure out why until I began this research.
According to Uncle Eppo, she escorted him, Mary, Juan and Bill, with no
husband, all the way to Hamadan under the most dreadful conditions.
She's entitled!!!!!!

Congratulations on your talent. Since our forebear
Mar Yohannan was the Bishop of the Church, it comes as no surprise. I
also have a feeling you have very bright children.

Now that I know that you're very interested, I'll
keep you up to date.

Love,

February 25, 1998

Mr. Jos. Jacob

2315 Cambridge Drive

North Brook, Illinois 60062

Dear Joe:

Can't find anyone who has a copy of John Elder's book
on Iran. However, the Department of History and Records Management
Services of the Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, sent me the enclosed:

From Susan J. Sullivan, Asoc Librarian for
Information Services:

Here is a copy of the finding aid which describes the
materials here on deposit about the Elder family. I hope you find this
information useful. Dated 2/18/98

Elder Family Papers, 1925-1979--Finding Aid to Record
Group 189

Biographical Statement: John Elder (1894-1983) and
Ruth Roche Elder (1899-) were appointed by the Board of Foreign
Missions to the East Persia Mission in 1921 and arrived on the field in
1923. Throughout their 42 years of service, they were engaged in
evangelistic missionary work, initially in Kermanshah (1923-1934), the
Hamadan (1934-1937) and finally in Teheran (1938-1964). Dr. Elder
served as the pastor of the Persian-speaking congregations in each
city. In 1935, he was Moderator of the newly formed Eastern Presbytery
of Iran and was elected Moderator of the Synod of Iran in 1947 and
1960. In addition to numerous other activities, Dr. Elder wrote diverse
articles, pamphlets and books that were published in both English and
Farsi. The Elders retired from missionary service in 1964.

Scope and Content Note: This collection consists
mainly of John and Ruth Elder's correspondence, reports, photographs
and other miscellaneous items, 1935-1979. The correspondence represents
"home letters" and annual newsletters that are primarily outgoing. The
reports include annual missionary labor reports for both John and Ruth
Elder. The photos, most of which are identified, reflect the Elder's
missionary service in Persia. Record Group 189 is arranged accordingly:

Series I John Elder, 1925-1979 Box 1 Folders 2-4

Series II Ruth Roche Elder, 1927-1960 Box 1 Folders
5-6

Series III Miscellany, c.1920s-1970s Box l Folders 7-8

Series IV Photographs, 1923-1970s Box 1 Folders 9-15

Notes to Researcher: Additional photographic material
was received in September 1987 and to accommodate that addition the
photographic series was revised.

Collection processed and finding aid prepared: 1984

Frederick J. Heuser, Archivist

Finding aid revised: September 1987

Kristin L. Gleeson, Assistant Archivist

Finding Aid to Record Group 189

Box One

Folder 1 Finding Aid to Record Group 189

Series I: John Elder, 1925-1979

2a A Brief History of the Iran Mission

2 Correspondence / reports, 1925-1979

3 Newsletters, 1948-1963

4 Newsletters, 1955-1958

Series II: Ruth Elder, 1927-1960

5 Correspondence, 1942-1957

6 Reports, 1927-1960

Series III: Miscellany, 1920s-1970s

7 Clippings, 1950s (?)

8 Miscellaneous items, 1920s-1970s

Series IV: Photographs, 1920s-1970s

9 Mission/Workers Conferences, 1923-1935

10 Mission/Workers Conferences, 1937-1960

11 Interchurch Christian Literature Bldg. 6 and

Staff, 1938-63

12 Harsin/Palestine, 1920s-1970s, 1923

13 Kermanshah/Hamadan/Teheran, 1920s-1970s

14 Iran Mission Slides, 1932, 1951-52, 1958

15 Miscellaneous Photos, 1920s-1970s

Our research stopped last December when Ed was
diagnosed with Prostate Cancer. He had a biopsy, bone scan, body scan,
gave 3 pints of blood over a month's time for his own use if needed,
and had the operation on Feb.11. They also found a hernia so he also
had a hernia operation. Very invasive. He's been home for two weeks and
it is very strange to find him ill. The only other time he was in the
hospital was tonsils at age 10. He was even born at home.

Anyway, when he recovers, we'll resume our genealogy
research. Just thought you would like the information from the Archives.

By the way, I e-mail our network of children and
grandchildren at college everyday with updates on the health of their
1. father 2. father-in-law and 3. two college students. It saves a lot
of phone calls.

Regards to Grace, Your cousin.

Irene Kliszus

43 Sarepta Rd., Belvidere NJ 07823

March 2, 1998

Dear Irene:

How is our Historian doing? Sylvia wrote and said
that you are really working hard tracking the Assyrian history. You
were always the smart one of the clan. If you end up writing a book, I
will be the first to buy a copy.

How is Rip? I pray to God the surgery went well and
that he will be up and around very soon. All those grandchildren need a
grandfather.

We are very busy babysitting like I told you before
and looking forward to Spring. It has been very mild here, very little
snow and not one day where the temperature went belong zero.

Elmer finally retired this year but every bodyshop in
town wants him to work for them part time. I really don't think he can
sit home. The only TV he watches are cartoons. He just never grew up.
He and Connie live with Cathy and Les. Cathy is working in sales at The
Hartford (insurance company). Dorothy has two children and works for
the phone company in Hartford. Bebs and Betty are good. Linda is still
living in L.A. She loves that lifestyle. Matt just got his broker's
license. He is working for a mortgage firm. He is brilliant. (takes
after Betty).

There are a few Assyrians that we know in New
Britain. The only ones left in Bristol are the Benjamins. I don't know
if you remember them. The mother and father have passed away, Mary and
Mike, and only Benny and Mop are living. They come over occassionally.
Susie cooks Dolma and Assyrian food for them. She cooks real good, just
like Mom. She even makes Chada.

I'll let you get back to your books. If you have a
chance let me know how Rip is doing,.

Miss you all very much. Wish we could turn back the
clock. We didn't have material things but what we had was priceless.

Love you and God Bless. Jean

March 6, 1998

Dear Jean:

It was great to hear from you. My fondest memories of
being young were our trips to New Brit-ian and Bris-tol and the nice
times we all had together. Never even knew we were "not affluent" but
only knew we had a bunch of cousins we really liked.

Rip went to the doctor this week and the doctor said
his operation was "text book" and all indications were that the cancer
was localized. His lymph nodes were examined by the labor during his
operation and showed no movement of the cancer; neither did his early
bone and cat scans. It's now three weeks, two days since the operation
on 2/11 and he just went to the bowling alley to visit his Friday night
Senior Bowling Leaguers.

The history stuff we've been researching for
almost three years has grown into three clothes baskets and it's
getting beyond filing. But the stuff is all on the computer and I would
be glad to send you a copy of everything I have right now. You won't
have to wait for the publication of the best seller of no year. The
reason I haven't sent the stuff out is because nobody seems to really
want to read all of it. But it would be my pleasure to copy and send
you everything. I included your letter also as part of the historical
data. Just let me know.

Also, we've been working on the Lithuanians (Kliszus)
and just got information from the National Archives in Vilnus,
Lithuania listing 21 genealogical listings for Rip's family. There were
a lot of children - most died in infancy or two years old and the only
known survivors were the three that came to America. An Uncle Andrew,
who is Rip's fathers half-brother (Andrew's mother died at 32/33),
Antanas Klisius, father of Edward and Florence and his sister,
Magadeline. Andrew and Antanas came in 1911 as young men and, as is the
custom, saved money and sent for their sister Aunt Maggie. The

Lithuanians have a genealogy society in Chicago,
which serves as a clearing house for Lithuanians and I haven't found an
equivalent service for the Assyrians in America. The Catholic Church
has been very, very, very valuable in this research. They have the
records of births, deaths, weddings, etc. The Turks did a good job in
Urmia because nothing is left of our paper work.

Glad to hear you're all doing well. I'm not surprised
Matt is bright--he takes after the Urmia Assyrians!!!!

Love,

Irene

June 18, 1998

Dear Marge:

I've been meaning to write you but quite a bit has
happened over the past couple of months. Ed found out in December he
had prostate cancer. He was having his annual checkup and had the PSA
test. He had a biopsy and had an operation in February. Now he's having
30 radiation treatments in the Easton, Pennsylvania Hospital. We leave
at 7 each morning to be there at 8 and they "nuke" him for 90 seconds
and we go home. So it takes a couple of hours for a couple of seconds
of treatment. He had no symptoms before and doesn't even have any now
but the PSA test is the critical indicator. Anyway, the doctors
actually use the word "cure" when it comes to this type of cancer. No
guarantees. Right now he's bowling.

I'm back to genealogy and have found the Internet
very useful. I'm enclosing some Social Security Death Results which is
on the Internet. Thought it might be of interest to you. I have a
gigantic file drawer with all the stuff accumulated over the past three
years and there seems to be no end in sight.

Otherwise, we're ok. By the way, Peter is 21 years
old today. He is starting his senior year at the Peabody Conservatory
at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and found himself a nice girlfriend who
plays the oboe. Wow - do I feel old.

Always, always think of you.

Love from all of us,

July 29, 1998

Dear Marge:

Thanks for your letter. Ed's family also has a cancer
history: his aunt Mary at 36; his mother at 42 , Mary's son Eugene at
18 and his grandmother at 72. He just finished 33 radiation treatments
and has an appointment in September for a PSA test, which will
determine, if the count is down, that the cancer cells are gone - I
guess for now anyway. It's the twilight zone because nothing is the
same any more.

Anyway, the Assyrians have an on-line magazine called
Zenda which is posted once a week from California. I'm enclosing this
week's because it has an interesting article about John Yohannan's
daughter, Grace Yohannan (Catto). You might have seen Zenda and if so,
can another copy hurt!!!!

Our grandchildren are really getting old. Peter is 21
and has a girlfriend, Lara and the youngest is Amy's son Michael Simon,
who is 2-1/2. Some range. Amy and Renee's family were down the Jersey
Shore last week and we spent sometime with them. It was very nice for
us to see so many grandchildren at one time.

Take care of yourself. ALWAYS think about you.

Love,

August 19, 1998

Mr. Paul Lewis

The New York Times

229 West 43rd Street

New York, New York 10036-3959

Re: "Too Late to Say "Extinct" in Ubykh, Eyak or Ona"

Mr. Lewis:

This letter is written in response to your article in
the NYT on Saturday, August 15, 1998 describing "thousands of
languages...endangered."

Please be advised that the Assyrian language is not
extinct. Assyrians don't need to tumble a handful of stones to hear the
Assyrian language spoken, nor do you have to look under stones to find
remnants of the Assyrian civilization.

In fact, we have a couple of web sites. ZENDA is a
weekly on-line Assyrian magazine (htp://www.assyrianinfo.com/Zendahome.
html) and there is also ASSYRIA ONLINE (http://www.aina.org/aol.) and
in addition a couple of others. Try Nineveh.

The Assyrians are having their annual
Assyrian-American convention Labor Day Weekend at the Sheraton in
Waterbury, Ct. Perhaps you would like to attend and hear the language
of that ancient civilization spoken by very civilized people.

Yours truly,

Irene Kliszus

43 Sarepta Road Belvidere, N. J. 07823

September 8, 1998

Dear Dottie and Pete:

It was very nice to receive an invitation to Joey's
wedding in Tampa. We used to go to Clearwater every year when Ed's
father was still living and did the tourist thing in Tampa. I remember
it was a very handsome city.

It would have been very nice to attend and take a
picture of all of you for our project. But since Ed's operation and
radiation treatments, we don't make plans that far in advance.

Thanks for remembering us.

Sincerely,

Ed and Irene

September 18, 1998

Dr. Eden Naby

Harvard University

Center for the Study of World Religions

Cambridge, Mass

Dear Eden aka DinDin:

My husband, my mother Mary Yohannan Aurahan, and I
were at several picnics at the home of your Aunt Nellie in New Jersey.
On several occasions, your father and mother were there and it was a
blessing to be in their company.

Your father presented me with an autograph copy of
his book PSALMS AND SONG OF A PERSIAN along with a sentence in
Assyrian--which of course, I can't read.

In this week's ZENDA, I saw the article you had
written and that is why I'm writing you.

Over the past three years, my husband and I began to
research our respective genealogy. Our grandchildren had asked us about
our backgrounds for projects at their schools and we discovered we knew
nothing of our parents' lives before coming to America. For my part, we
visited the Department of History of the Presbyterian Church in
Philadelphia as a first step. I discovered more about my mother's life
than I had ever known and now I have a giant drawer full of findings
about Urumia. I remember Mom telling me that your father was so honest
and had so much integrity, that he never benefited financially from the
refugee program he helped to administer. She always spoke very highly
of him and your mother--especially since your mother was from Urumia!

Anyway, I've enclosed a source sheet of references,
which also includes a paper by Dr. Michigan Zirinsky of the History
Dept at Boise State University entitled AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN
MISSIONARIES AT URUMIA DURING THE GREAT WAR.

along with a sample of our research.

This reference data is invaluable but it is very
important to include personal histories and so my humble request is for
you to write a few words describing your parents' life in Urumia. your
father's ministry, and some background on the massacre, the tragic trip
to Hamadan, perhaps even information on my grandfather's church in
Urumia. I want to leave my grandchildren and their progeny a feeling of
history; an appreciation of the spiritual lives of the Assyrians, and
the gallant missionaries who suffered with them.

My eldest daughter Renee (Joey's age) is a historian
and told me she would like to assemble the research and develop a
project based on the Assyrians of Urumia.

I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Irene (Auraham)Kliszus

43 Sarepta Road

Belvidere, N. J. 07823

908-475-21

November 6, 1998

To: Joe, Jack, Pete, Julia

From: Me

Re: our heritage

Cousins:

Our genealogy project is winding down and we may be
able to "publish" next year. We bought a scanner and will include
pictures. I have pictures of our grandmother and grandfather, Joseph
and Shalem. They appear to be wedding clothes. There's another picture
of Shalem later. There is also a picture taken either December 1904 or
early 1905 of Shalem holding a infant, Mary, my mother with a group of
other people. I also think I have a description of the group. I
remember asking mom to name names and somewhere in the files I'll find
the list. Anyway, I would like to include all of you and your progeny
and so this letter is to ask if you would send me your individual
groupings.

If I don't hear from you, I'll assume you're not
interested and will finish up with the data I do have.

As you well know, it's been difficult to find any
records of our ancestors. We've had better luck with the Lithuanians
because they came earlier in the century and appear in the census
records of 1900, 1910 and 1920. I think we found about 3 Assyrians in
Elizabeth, N.J. They were primarily single men. The census of 1930 will
be available sometime in the year 2000 and most of the Assyrians I
would recognize came about 1924-5 - I think.

The Lithuanians also lived in the neighborhood of
their church and so we found them in the Elizabeth N.J. city
directories and especially records of that church.

Our historical data was found in the Presbyterian
Historical Society in Philadelphia and Princeton Seminary. We also
perused through microfilm at Lafayette College and found a little
information there. It was mostly about Russia's influence in Iran and
only a few references to the 1918 massacre.

Don't want to bore you but I will look forward to
anything you send.

Your cousin

Irene Kliszus, PS: Am sending Julia's to Dottie and
Pete

November 11, 1998

Department of Near Eastern Languages and

Civilizations

Harvard University

6 Divinity Avenue

Cambridge, MA 02138

RE: David B. Perley Memorial Assyrian Fund

NELC:

A request by NELC for "books, photographs, documents"
relating to Assyria and I presume Assyrians in America.

For the past three years, my husband and I have been
researching our ancestors and mine are the Assyrians of Persia. My
mother's family were attacked in 1918 by the Kurds and Turks in what
became known in our home as "the massacre".

Enclosed is a Source/Reference sheet which is
self-explanatory. Also enclosed is a picture of my great great
grandfather, Mar Yohannan with Dr. Grant, the first missionary doctor.

I have in my possession an old book, written in what
I think is Assyrian. Someone wrote a little legend in English which
says" This book treats of: Poems and Plays on various themes- home,
nationalism, dramas and comedies--written in Assyrian"

My cousin Joe is the only person I know who can read
and write Assyrian and I was thinking of sending him a few pages to get
a clue as to the contents.

This letter is therefore written to you to say that
if you are at all interested in an amateur's collection of research,
including old photographs taken in Urumia in 1904-1909ish, please let
me hear from you.

Yours truly,

Irene Kliszus

(Mrs. Edward A.)

43 Sarepta Road

Belvidere, N. J. 07823

908-475-2134

e-mail: berthama@ epix.net

Enclosures: Picture: Grant/Yohannan&Sources

November 14, 1998

Dear Joe:

Thank you very much for your genealogy sheet. You
have David and Mark both born in 1956....

The Assyrians have an on-line weekly magazine ZENDA.
My cousin John's daughter Grace let me in on it. I don't know if you're
familiar with ZENDA but I read it each week and send Sylvia a copy.
Must say the Assyrians they write about are alien to me. The only
Assyrians I'm familiar with are those from Urumia and members of our
distinguished great, great-great and grandfathers' family. Anyway,
enclosed is a letter I wrote in response to a request in this week's
edition.

I asked my daughters Renee and Laura to oversee the
stuff accumulated over the past 3-4 years and they said "make sure you
back it up". But I think if Harvard is at all interested it would be a
great place to store our heritage. We've been sending the Lithuanian
data to the Balzekas on So. Pulaski in Chicago and they eagerly accept
family archives because they make it available for root-seekers.

We still haven't got the hang of the scanner! We're
going to grab Eddie one whole day if that's possible and chain him to
the computer and make him scan, scan, scan.

We wish all of you a very fine holiday season.

Your cousin Irene

PS: do you want to read a couple of pages of the book
to which I refer?

11/19/98

Dear Sheila:

Am still working on our Assyrian Genealogy but think
it's winding down now. I was reading letters in my files and re-read
the one where you told me you had a tape of your mother's recounting of
how they came to America.

If you would be willing to send me the tape, or a
copy, I would like to transcribe it and include it in the section
called "eye witness accounts" Right now we're working on including old
pictures: samples enclosed.

Hope that you are all well. Sylvia told me you've had
physical problems and it is my sincere wish and hope that they have
been resolved. My husband Ed spent the last year having an operation
and radiation treatments for prostate cancer. It's been the most
horrible year we've had together. We'll be married 50 years in February
and we're hoping we can have some kind of family gathering but we
measure our lives by his prostate blood tests and the next one is due
in December. If the number stays the same or goes down, we think we'll
start planning.

Enclosed are copies of e-mail in response to my
letter to the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at
Harvard University, which are self-explanatory.

If you are interested in submitting any archival
material, please contact Eden Naby.

The Assyrian On-Line magazine, ZENDA, printed the
request in the November 9,1998 issue.

November 25, 1998

Ronald J Careb

14 Lamberts Lane

Stonington, CT 06378-2906

Dear Ronnie:

I know you don't remember me but my mother was Mary
Aurahan and my sister is Sylvia. The last time I saw you was in
Connecticut when Eddie's Sweet Shop was still serving those banana
splits.

Having said that, my husband Ed and I have been doing
genealogy research over the past 3-4 years and we're now in the process
of scanning pictures to include. I went through my mother's "album" and
found a couple of pictures of your family. In the meantime, Harvard U
is planning an exhibit on Assyria in March 99 and I will be sending
them archival papers of my mother and father, including the pictures
from the album.

Is it ok to send the picture I have of your mother
and father, copy enclosed? I've enclosed a copy of my original letter
which was answered in a positive way.

Sincerely yours,

Irene Aurahan Kliszus

43 Sarepta Rd

Belvidere NJ 07823

908-475-2134

E-mail berthama@epix.ne

To: Margaret Sargis Yohannan, widow of William Joseph
Yohannan

March 9, 1999

Dear Marge:

We went to Harvard on Sunday. It was very cold and
very windy and it didn't help that we had to walk around Harvard Square
until we found the right building.

There was a lecture entitled Syriac From Script to
Print. Dr. Coakley showed slides and spoke for an hour on the
development of the language, especially the printing methods. Then we
were served chada and chai from a samovar and went to another library
for the actual exhibits. Assyrians were there from some local group and
I actually heard and understood some of the Assyrian, which I haven't
heard for a long time. I did understand "let's sit here".

Amy was with us and since her son was sick at home we
only looked at one exhibit and to our surprise, it prominently
displayed the pictures of Shalem and Joseph--the ones you gave us and
included the Solomon family tree Joe made. There were pictures of the
Fiske Seminary and a few other pictures plus a time-line of the
Assyrian civilization.

Harvard may only accept the brightest and best but
they sure don't trust them--we had to pass security into the library
and when we were leaving we got lost and a couple of exit doors had
signs saying "doors armed".

Am enclosing the program.

Irene

March 9, 1999

To: Joe, Pete, Julie

Ed, Amy and I went to "The Assyrian Experience" at
Harvard Sunday and I'm enclosing a copy of the program. There was an
hour lecture on from Script to Print that was very interesting but it
was a lot to absorb. The professor was fascinated with the printed
word.

After the lecture, Chai and Khada was served by a
local Assyrian group and the samovar was set up. I also heard some
Assyrian I could still understand, such as "let's sit here"

They introduced Joseph Nimrod, from Chicago I think.
Also, during the lecture we learned that there was a bevy of printing
activity in Chicago in the early 1930's or so.

I think somebody from the Assyrian Universal Alliance
was there too, unless he was Joseph Nimrod. Can't remember.

After all of the above, we went to another library to
view the exhibit. Since Amy's son was home sick, we only viewed the
exhibit on the main floor. But what an exhibit: Pictures of our
grandfather and grandmother--Joseph and Shalem--were prominently
displayed along with the family tree Joe made. There were other items
there also, such as a picture of the students of the Fiske Seminary but
of course, the pictures of our grandparents was the piece de resistance
for us.

We bought the catalogue of Sources for the Study of
the 19th and 20th Centuries which contains "From the Holdings of the
Harvard University Libraries" and in the Acknowledgments, listed me as
one of the donors--with my name spelled wrong!

We had to pass security checks in and out and some of
the doors were marked "doors armed"--guess even the intelligentsia of
Harvard is suspect!

Your cousin,

March 12, 1999

Dr. Michael E. Hopper

Middle Eastern Division

Harvard College Library

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Dr. Hopper:

On Sunday, March 7, 1999, my husband and I, along
with our daughter Amy Rowshandel, who works in Cambridge at DSS,
attended the Mishael and Lilllie Naby Assyrian Inaugural Lecture. It
was my pleasure to have known The Rev. and Mrs. Naby. My mother, Mary
Yohannan Auraham, regarded them very highly and told me that when Mr.
Naby helped administer aid at Hamadan, he was exemplary in his conduct.
Mom was a victim of "The Massacre."

It was fascinating for me to hear WASP Boomers waxing
eloquent about the Assyrian civilization, culture and writing.

I bought your catalogue and as I was perusing it this
afternoon, I did notice that my name was spelled incorrectly in the
Acknowledgments. It is spelled Irene K l i s z u s and pronounced K L I
S H U S. With regard to the Items on Exhibit in Case 2, 1. Yosep &
Shalim Yokhannan - these are my grandparents. Mom always spelled their
surname as:

Y O H A N N A N. Her version was that her mother
Shalim had died of the flu that was pandemic, along with an infant son,
before the invasion. It was her grandmother, who was chased through the
courtyard by the Turks, who threw her body over her grandson William. I
don't know how Joseph died. He may have been murdered at the same time.

Would it be possible for me to buy a picture of Case
2 and also a separate copy of the Assyrian time-line? We're preparing a
genealogy book for our 4 children and 10 grand-children and would very
much like to include these. In addition, we're hoping to return to
Harvard to view the exhibit again.

It was very pleasant to work with Dr. Naby and she
did me a great service by translating the messages on the backs of my
mother's pictures. She is a great asset to your department.

Cordially yours,

Irene Auraham Kliszus

43 Sarepta Road, Belvidere, N. J.07823 - e-mail:
eikliszus@fast.ne

April 26, 1999

Re: Esau (John Auraham/n)

Dear Eden:

This letter has the following enclosures:

Pictures numbered 1 to 9 about the life of my
paternal uncle: Esau (John) Auraham. Descriptions - to the best of my
knowledge - of who is in the pictures.

Social Security Death Index Results for: Elisha
Aurahan, my father; Mary Aurahan, my mother; Elizabeth Auraham and
Elsie Aurahan. Uncle Esau was married twice and had no children. I am
therefore presuming these are his wives, from whom he was divorced.

A letter dated August 20, 1997 to the Veterans
Administration inquiring, which is self-explanatory. The V.A. did
answer my letter and sent me a copy of his discharge papers from what
they call "alternate records source", also enclosed.

John's World War I ribbon issued by the State of New
York.

A little booklet entitled "The Claims of the
Assyrians before the Conference of the Preliminaries of Peace" as well
as a paper delivered by Dr. David B. Perly entitled "The Assyrians".
These are probably redundant.

Finally, a thumbnail sketch of what I knew of Uncle
John.

Sincerely,

Irene Kliszus

43 Sarepta Road, Belvidere, NJ 07823

A SHORT SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ESAU (JOHN) AURAHAM/N
FROM A VAGUE MEMORY BY HIS NIECE, IRENE AURAHAN KLISZUS

(APRIL 1999)

John Auraham was born in Gavelin, Persia in 1889 and
died on August 9, 1943 and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Hillside,
New Jersey. His brother Elisha (my father) took care of the
arrangements because our family knew nothing of the whereabouts of his
two wives.

John and Elisha emigrated together and settled in New
York City - at the lower end of Park Avenue so that they could say they
lived on Park Avenue. They had left Persia and went to Russia for
sometime before they came to America. Since Elisha did speak Russian, I
presumed they stayed there for some time.

John was tall and a bon vivant and as you can see
from his pictures, he wore fine clothes and drove a Studebaker. He was
the exact opposite of my father Elisha. When I was growing up, he was
working as a chef in New Jersey at the St. Elizabeth Hospital.

He always wore a straw hat and spats.

On several occasions he lived with us - he was
probably between wives or jobs. Uncle John was an avid gambler and most
of what I remember about him is that he would drive some of his
Assyrian cronies to our house where they and my father, played cards
all night and I mean all night. One morning my mother had enough and
she took her broom and ordered them to leave. Was I glad!!!!

He had a heart attack and died at age 54. My parents
arranged his funeral and buried him as a Protestant. Since he was a
Catholic and worked for nuns at St. Elizabeth Hospital, they did not
attend his funeral. He is buried in an unmarked grave in Evergreen
Cemetery.

SECTION VIII û ASSYRIAN RECIPES

Included in this memoir are the following recipes
which were familiar fare in a typical Assyrian-American home. Am
calling them by their phonetic names.

These recipes were compiled by Assyrian women in the
Yonkers, New York Assyrian-American Association.

5 to 7 minutes, or until one kernel of rice tastes
half-cooked, but not soft. Pour rice into colander and rinse with cold
water. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Use some of the butter for bottom
of roasting pan with cover. Pour rice over butter. Add remaining
butter. Cover, bake 3/4 hour, shaking roasting pan twice during baking
to mix butter with rice. Serves 4.

Addendum from recipe from Mary Yohannan Aurahan
(Momma)

Peel about 2 potatoes, or enough when sliced to cover
bottom of a large frying pan, or equivalent. Melt some butter in the
pan, add sliced potatoes and brown. Remove from heat for a moment, add
rice, add blobs of butter, cover with wax paper and steam until rice is
separate.

ASSYRIAN 'RICHTA' NOODLES

5 lbs. flour 7 cups lukewarm water 7 Tablespoons salt

Pour flour into large mixing utensil. Add salt and
water and knead until dough has the appearance of a sponge when cut.
Divide dough into 11-13 balls. Cover with plastic and blanket
overnight. Roll each ball into 18 x 24-inch oblong thin sheets. Cut
with knife or pasta cutter into 1/4-inch wide strips. Use plenty of
flour to roll and lengthen strips. Hang on clothes line overnight until
dry. Remove and brown in a 325 degree oven. Store and use as needed.

These noodles are added to rice that is steaming in
the oven method of cooking.

SHURWA (STEW)

2 lbs. lamb or beef in chunks 1 can tomatoes - 16 oz.

1 large onion, chopped 1 tsp. salt

1 green pepper, cubed 1/4 tea. pepper and 1 tbl.
paprika

4-5 med. potatoes, peeled

Place meat in saucepan and cover with water. Cook
until almost tender and water evaporates. Add chopped onions, black
pepper, paprika and salt. Mix thoroughly. Add tomatoes and potatoes.
Let simmer until potatoes are cooked. Add green pepper and simmer for 5
minutes. Optional: one small eggplant, cut into chunks.

Cook meat in an 8-quart saucepan with little water
until tender. Add chopped onions, black pepper, paprika and salt. Mix
well. Add tomato sauce. Cook for 15 minutes under medium heat. Add
beans and cook for 10 minutes. In a frying pan saute green pepper,
onion wedges and mushrooms together with butter. Cook only half way, do
not overcook. Pour into pot and mix carefully. Simmer for 10 minutes
and do not overcook. Serve with and over Assyrian rice. 8 servings.

For some reason, pickles go with Kur-roosh

ASSYRIAN HAMBURGERS - ALSO KNOWN AS MOMMABURGERS

2 lbs. lean ground chuck 1/2 tsp. salt - to taste

1 large onion, chopper 1/4 tsp. black pepper

1/4 c. chopped green pepper 1 egg

Mix all ingredients thoroughly in large bowl. Make
patties according to desired size. Grill, bake or fry according to
desire. Comment: this is recipe used at picnic and hamburgers are
grilled, served with chopped dill, fresh coriander and scallions.
Serves 6. Also: you can roll Mommaburgers in fine crumbs and fry in
butter on the stove.

LU-LA-KABOB

2 lbs. lean ground chuck 1 tsp Season All

1 large onion, chopper 1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 c. chopped green pepper 1/4 tsp. black pepper

1/4 c. chopped fresh dill 1/4 tsp. Accent

Mix all ingredients very well. Take about a cupful
and squeeze on a skewer (called Sheesh in Assyrian). Keep working meat
on skewer for 5 minutes, or until meat stays on skewers. Cook on grill
or on gas stove over medium flame. Served with baked Assyrian rice,
chopped greens, dill, scallions and fresh coriander. Serves 6.

Remove all fat and gristle from lamb and cut into
1-inch squares. Mix thoroughly with remaining ingredients. Let stand
several hours or overnight in refrigerator. Put meat on skewers and
cook over charcoal fire or gas broiler until meat is crisply brown on
all sides. If desired, alternate pieces of tomato and green pepper with
meat. Serve with finely chopped green vegetables such as scallions,
parsley and green pepper, fresh dill and fresh cilantro. Serve while
hot.

Note: Ask the butcher to bone the meat for you or buy
boneless lamb. It's easier to cut into squares for grilling.

Cream cottage cheese with cream cheese together until
smooth and free of lumps. Add remaining ingredients, blend well. Serve
with crackers or French bread.

Jajek lends itself to double and triple dipping.

MESTA - AKA YOGURT

1/2 gallon whole milk 4 tbs.. plain yogurt

Scald milk. Let cool until it no longer burns your
little finger (about 110 degrees). Add yogurt for culture. Stir. Pour
into crockery bowl, cover with several dish towels. Let it set
overnight or all day in a warm place. It keeps for 2-3 weeks in
refrigerator.

Stuffing directions: cook meat with a little water
until tender. Add black pepper, paprika and one chopped onion. Simmer
for a few minutes. Remove from heat. Add rice, dill, coriander, celery,
green pepper, salt, sweet basil and remainder of onions. Mix all
ingredients together well.

2 heads cabbage, about 6 lbs.

Core cabbage. Pour boiling water over cabbage leaves
and cook for about 5 minutes. Break leaves apart or until partially
cooked. Do not overcook. Cut each leaf in half lengthwise and cut away
the thick center. Place on heaping teaspoonful of stuffing in the
center of each cabbage leaf and roll up to cover stuffing. Place in
large casserole or roaster. Place each stuffed cabbage in rows, then in
layers. Repeat until all stuffing has been used.

Juice of 2 lemons 1--32 oz. bottle catsup

Baking directions: Pour boiling water over dolma
until visible, but not covering the top layer. Cover with foil and bake
approximately 1-1/2 hours. Remove foil and pour mixture of catsup and
lemon juice over top. Continue baking for 1/2 or 3/4 of an hour, until
leaves are tender and rice is cooked. If water evaporates, add a little
boiled water when pouring in catsup mixture.

Recommendation: Decrease the recipe and make a
smaller batch first. This large recipe is very good for a large
gathering. Cook a batch of rice, serve with a large green salad and
bread. I think the word for cabbage in Assyrian is "Cha l me" .
Variations include stuffed tomatoes dolma, stuffed grapeleaves dolma,
stuffed eggplant dolma, stuffed grapeleaves dolma. (Grape leaves are
"dur-pea" in Assyrian )

HARESSA

1 lb. whole wheat - shelled 1 large fryer or 1 medium
capon

Wash and soak wheat in water overnight. Cover chicken
with water, cook over medium heat for 1/2 hour. Cool. Skin and debone
chicken. Place soaked wheat in a 10-quart pot. Add water to fill 2/3 of
pot. Cover and cook over medium heat for 3/4 hour. Stir occasionally.
Add boiled water as needed. Add deboned chicken and broth to the wheat.
Add enough boiled water to fill 2/3 of pot. Cover. Place in preheated
oven at 250 degrees. Bake for 3-4 hours, stirring and beating
occasionally with a wooden spoon. Hareesa is ready when chicken and
wheat are blended together and have the consistency of oatmeal. Remove
from oven. Use electric hand mixer and beat for about 15 minutes. Salt
Hareesa when serving. Serve with hot melted butter and ground roasted
coriander seeds if desired.

Note: Many of these recipes are used for certain
times of the year. Hareesa was an Easter or Christmas meal.

BUSHALA

Bushala is another "calendar" meal. Easter or
Christmas.

1/2 gallon yogurt 1 green pepper, chopped

1/2 gallon water 10 c. Swiss chard, chopped or 10 c.
fresh

1 egg spinach, chopped

1/4 c. rice

1/4 c. flour 1 bunch fresh coriander, chopped

3 c. chopped celery 1 tablespoon salt

2 hot banana pepper

Recommendation: make less than above

Place yogurt and water in an 8-quart pot. With whisk
beat in flour, egg and rice.

Add peppers and celery, and place over high heat.
Stir constantly until mixture comes to a boil. (stirring keeps yogurt
from curdling). Add Swiss chard or spinach. Keep stirring until
vegetables are tender. Turn off heat and add coriander and salt. Stir
occasionally. Keeps well in refrigerator. Can be served hot or cold.

Saute onions in butter until transparent. In medium
pot combine tomato sauce, water and rice. Stir well and add onions.
Place over low flame. In mixing bowl combine meat, salt, egg and bread
crumbs. Mix thoroughly. Make 4-6 meatballs according to desired size.
Place in tomato mixture and cook about 1 hour over medium flame. Serve
with French bread, pickles or tourishye.

Wash vegetables and place in jars. Vegetables can be
sliced. Boil water and add vinegar, salt and sugar. Mix thoroughly.
When brine is cooled, pour over vegetables in jars. Add garlic, dill
and pickling spices to each jar. Note: jars must be washed and
sterilized before pickling process begins

SHEE-LED KHULVA (RICE PUDDING--KHULVA IS MILK)

1 cup rice pinch of salt

2 qts milk 1 tea. vanilla

2 tablespoons sugar. 2 beaten eggs

Wash rice in clear water; place in saucepan. Add one
quart milk; cook over low flame, stirring until milk is warm; gradually
add second quart of milk. Cook rice in this milk. When rice is cooked
and mixture thickens, remove from flame and stir for 2 minutes.
However, it is urgent that you stir the rice until the mixture is "not
too tick, not too tin" You will probably have to stand at the stove,
stirring for at least 20-30 minutes. The secret in the pudding is its
consistency. Remove from burner, take 2 beaten eggs, mixed with some
milk and stir into the rice. Add sugar to taste.

THE PIECE DE RESISTANCE (CADDI AKA CHADDA)

No Assyrian gathering would be complete without a cup
of chi (tea) and a piece of chadda.

DOUGH

1 lb. butter 5 eggs

7 cups flour 1 tbl. salt

2 cups milk 1 tbl. baking powder

1/2 cup sugar 3 cakes yeast - 1 oz. each

Directions for dough: Mix flour, salt and baking
powder in large bowl. Cut butter into dry ingredients as you would for
pie crust. In small bowl mix sugar and yeast and let stand. (This will
get syrupy). Bring milk to a boil and then cool to lukewarm. In another
bowl beat eggs well and add to lukewarm milk. Add yeast-sugar mixture
to egg- milk mixture and mix well. Pour liquids into dry ingredients
and blend well. Cover and let rise in a warm place (use heavy blanket
over it) for 2 hours. Press dough down and let rise again for one more
hour. Divide dough into 5 round balls (let rise for 20 minutes.)

FILLING;

1-1/2 lb. butter sticks 7 cups flour

Directions for filling: Melt butter slowly, add flour
and mix constantly until mixture starts to soften, about 40 minutes.
Mixing at this point is very important as it burns quickly. The filling
can be made the day before.

Baking Directions: Sprinkle flour on table and roll
the ball out into a long narrow strip 5 x 20 inches. Spread one cup of
filling on half of strip and bring other half over to cover, pinch
edges together firmly.

Then roll out until strip is about 3/8 inch thick--4
inches wide by 30 inches long. Cut strips into 10 pieces 4 x 3 inches.
Brush pieces with eggs which have been beaten. Sesame seeds could be
added to egg mixture if desired.

Place on cookie sheet and let rise for 15 minutes.
Bake in 400 degree oven - 15 minutes on first rack, 3 inches from
bottom, and then on a higher rack to brown. Be sure to prick caddie
before baking. Makes 50 pieces.

Recommendation: On your first try, make a smaller
batch. Also, Momma Aurahan shaped her chadda like a pizza--it was one
large round pie, filled with the butter filling. This chadda burns
readily so keep alert!! Momma used to sit on the kitchen floor and
knead, knead, knead.

THIS SECTION CONTAINS A PICTURE ALBUM

1900-1999

Page

Left: Dr. Asahel Grant, the first American Missionary
Doctor and Mar Yohannan, Bishop of the Assyrian Church and friend of
Justin Perkins

Gulpashan Assyrian Church. The minister, Kasha
Yohannan, is the paternal grandfather of Mary, Juan, and William
Yohannan, father of Shalem Solomon

Yohannan. Picture taken by Sylvia Aurahan Weidemann
when she visited Iran in

Bottom: Picture of students at their school in
Gulpashan. The teacher standing left unidentified but the teacher on
the right, standing, is Hannah Yohannan, paternal aunt of Mary, Juan
and William. Circa: 1907-8.

33. South Beach, New York, circa 1940's, left to
right, unidentified guest, Joseph Yohannan, Mae and Lorraine Yohannan,
Irene Aurahan, Evelyn Isaacs, wife of Lincoln, and David Yohannan,
father of Elizabeth, Mae and Lorraine.

34. William Yohannan, U.S. Navy 1944

35. Gary, Indiana, circa 1927 Top:Left to Right: Mary
Careb, Nano Careb with their children Grace and Walter (Walter deceased
as a young boy-leukemia)

42. Idelwild Airport-Kennedy, New York City, left to
right: Mary Aurahan and family waiting for arrival of her sister Juan,
whom she hasn't seen for almost 40 years. Left to right: Laura Kliszus,
Mary, Irene Kliszus, Sylvia Weidemann and Dee Barth. Three boys, left
to right: Ed Kliszus Jr., Michael Barth and Jim Barth Jr. Arrival: Mary
and Juan embracing, William in background. Woman on left is Sarah Isaac.

61. On January 1, 1999, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Kliszus
of White Township, N.J., invited their three daughters, one son, four
grandsons, six granddaughters, two sisters, one nephew, two first
cousins, two enduring friends, and all the various spouses to brunch at
Windows on the World, on the 107th floor of the World Trade
Center in New York City, to celebrate their 50th wedding
anniversary. A jazz trio, led by their son Ed. Jr. performed for the
guests. Ed and Irene were married on February 5, 1949 at Greystone
Presbyterian Church in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Mr. Kliszus retired in
1991 from Union County Technical Schools in Scotch Plains, N.J. where
he taught Machine Trades. Mrs. Kliszus worked as a secretary for the
Summit,NJ Board of Education. She retired in 1993 when they moved to
White Township.